


Love Of The Game

by BourbonOnTheRocks



Series: A Part Of It [2]
Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Angst, Character Development, Dean Has No Shame, Developing Relationship, Drunk Beth Is Kinky, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, It's the last chapter so I'm going nuts with the tags, Multi POV, Protective Rio (Good Girls), References to Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Rio (Good Girls) Being an Asshole, Rio Has Common Manhood Insecurities, Sexual Content, Soft Rio (Good Girls), The Tattoos Are A Metaphor, Trust Issues, Turner Is Still A True Villain, Violence, cause I can't help it, duh!, like a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2020-12-14 12:50:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 66,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21016064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BourbonOnTheRocks/pseuds/BourbonOnTheRocks
Summary: "Does it make me a bad person?"He smirked and got closer, almost touching her, before his hand slowly pushed a lock of hair back behind her ear."You've always been a bad person, Elizabeth, you just didn't know it yet." he thoughtfully said.ORA Sequel toLove and War. Beth is torn between her dark side and her sense of morality. And some skeletons are falling out of the closet...





	1. The Sound Of Silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Because a vision softly creeping_  
_Left its seeds while I was sleeping_  
_And the vision that was planted in my brain_  
_Still remains_  
_Within the sound of silence_  
(Song from **Simon & Garfunkel**, although I'm more into Disturbed's cover these days...)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Following the events of chapter 13 and the night when Beth killed Harry...
> 
> If you haven't read [Love and War](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19874029), you may miss a couple of details in what follows, but basically, all you need to know is that Beth just killed a crime boss called Harry, and she's now working with Rio as his partner. Incidentally, they just confessed their mutual feelings for each other.❤️
> 
> Oh, and Dean works for Turner now!

_Plop... Plop...Plop_

_The muffled sound of blood droplets falling on the lino was hypnotizing her as she was slowly walking towards Harry's body. As she reached the bed, she could see the crimson hole in his chest and the trail of blood running up his neck to the side of his head bending outside of the bed. She contemplated his lifeless body, his half-closed, empty eyes, fascinated. But suddenly he opened them, wide, shining like flashlights as he was watching her and he let out a gloomy evil laugh that made blood come out of his wound in little spurts. She shot him again, not even trying to aim at any specific spot and only wishing to make it stop, but it didn't seem that he cared at all and he kept laughing at her._

_"It's not working like this Mrs. Boland," he told her, "But it's really cute that you try!"_

_She screamed in frustration and emptied the full clip of her gun in his body, without any other result than a slightly annoyed expression on his face, that grew angrier and angrier, until..._

_"Enough!" he groaned._

_And raising his arm that was still holding his gun, he coldly shot her in the head._

Beth woke up in panic, a hoarse scream bursting from her throat, and it took her a few seconds to remember where she was.

"Hey, hey!" she heard Rio's sleepy voice by her side, "It's okay."

She felt his hand groping in the folds of the sheet until he found her and squeezed her bare shoulder. Her whole body was shaking, still in shock. The dream was so vividly realistic that she was still quite unsure of where reality was standing now. She heard the rumble of sheets as Rio straightened his upper body a bit.

"Bad dream?" he whispered.

She let out a terrified little squeak that could have sounded affirmative.

"Harry?" he asked again.

She nodded in the darkness, still too shaken to realize that Rio couldn't see her.

"What happened?"

"He... I couldn't kill him. No matter the number of bullets. And then... he killed me," she shivered, hating how weak and terrified her own voice sounded to her ears. Rio's hand was still stroking her shoulder and her back, providing a comforting energy.

"It's okay, mama, don't worry, he's gone for good. You ended it," Rio gently told her.

She heard him yawn and lie back in the bed, his hand still stroking her arm. The grey light of dawn was already perceptible between the shutter slats, and she sighed as she settled back comfortably in the bed. She could tell from Rio's regular breath that he was already falling back asleep, but she kept her eyes wide open. She was too afraid to meet Harry's stare again in her dreams, and she'd just been hit by the reality of who she was now. A murderer. No matter her reasons, no matter how much the man she killed was a horrible person. That was who she was now. What she was. And she wasn't sure to be okay with that frightening thought.

She must have managed to fall asleep again at some point though, because when she re-opened her eyes a little later, she could see the daylight and Rio had been gone from the bed long enough for the sheets to be cold where he had lied down. She sat in the bed, naked, only to realize that she hadn't planned to spend the night at Rio's—hadn't planned he'd take her to his place to begin with— hence she had no spare clothes, nor pajamas to put on. On the other hand, she already knew he owned a huge pile of expensive clothes she'd never seen him wearing so she made her way to the ensuite dressing and grabbed the first T-shirt she could find, relishing the comforting smell of his laundry detergent that reminded her of him. Her first intention had been to wear it right away, but she realized that she needed a shower first. She still felt uncomfortable from her dream, and she hoped that showering would make her feel better. She almost expected to see large rivers of blood washing away with the hot water while she kept hearing that voice in her mind. _You're a murderer now._ That wasn't something she could ever tell the girls. Or anyone else, she realized as she was drying herself. No one but Rio could ever know what she'd done last night.

She then engaged in the tricky task of exploring the apartment. It wasn't that huge, but she'd always had had troubles at getting her bearings in an unfamiliar environment, especially in that anxious mood she was in right now, and she couldn't find Rio anywhere which started to worry her. She eventually found the kitchen in the process, which was of course gorgeous and even better-equipped than hers. She smiled when she spotted the fun shaped pancakes Rio had left for her, a gentle reminder of the morning he had cooked breakfast at her home while he still expected her answer to his partnership offer. That morning felt like ages ago now. He'd left a small note along with the remains of his own breakfast, and she had to squint to decipher his counterintuitive as always handwriting.

_Work thing to fix. Back soon. Make yourself at home._

He'd added a small squiggle that had probably been intended as a smiley face but that in Beth's opinion could honestly be used as a part of the Rorschach test. As she was pouring herself some coffee, she thought that from a certain point of view, she was glad to be alone right now and have some time to process her thoughts. It wasn't that she regretted to have killed Harry _per se_, the man was a living pig who'd tried to kill her and have her raped, and she didn't feel sorry at all for his fate. But seeing herself as a killer, that was something new she wasn't sure she could cope with yet. She'd thought it wouldn't matter, that it might actually even empower her, but it turned out to feel bitterer than expected, mirroring her in a way she didn't like, creating a line between her and everyone else she loved. Except Rio. Because she had crossed that ultimate line, the one of the absolutely undoable things.

Somewhere in her back, she heard the sound of the entrance door, and she woke up from her meditative thoughts. A few seconds later, Rio entered the kitchen and she met his eyes.

"Yo!" he cheered her with a smile.

"Hi," she shyly tried to cheer back.

She spotted his appreciative gaze at the sight of the whole show of herself only wearing one of his T-shirts, and the resulting greedy light in his stare, but she was definitely not in the mood for that right now. She noticed that it was probably the first time since they had started to sleep together that she wasn't already wet just from the idea of it. Rio caught the devastated look on her face.

"Still thinkin' 'bout it, huh?" he asked, answering her thoughts.

"Yes," she muttered, "Does it make me a bad person?"

He smirked and got closer, almost touching her, before his hand slowly pushed a lock of her hair back behind her ear.

"You've always been a bad person, Elizabeth, you just didn't know it yet," he thoughtfully said, before he chuckled when he saw the shock in her eyes, "Nah, I'm just kiddin'!" he told her, giving her lips a small peck, "Listen, I know it's hard but in a couple days you won't think 'bout it anymore. And the truth is you're as much a bad person as me!" he cruelly added, forcing her to face her own contradictions.

He took a step back and sighed. He knew that had been a mistake. She wasn't ready to handle the aftermath, no matter how much she desired it. Maybe she just needed some time, but he was truly worried. And it felt weird too, having her at his place for the first time after what had happened last night, and man, what a night! He didn't know what to say to her, how to behave, after all that had been said and done. And that guilt shit she was dealing with right now was not helping. He knew he was supposed to be comforting and gentle with her, but this kind of situation tended to make him withdraw into his own inner fortress. Whenever he was in this type of emotional state, the wall of brick was one of his best renditions so far. And she wasn't saying anything, silently watching him, which didn't make it easier.

"I think we need to talk, though," he slowly said.

"About what?"

She could feel that embarrassing awkwardness between them, that emotional hangover after the intoxicating wildness of the night, after the things they had said to each other in the spur of a foolish, blood-driven moment. There was too much to process anyway, but for starters she wasn't even able to look him in the eyes each time she recalled that she'd told him she loved him less than twelve hours before. And judging from the expression on his face, he was in that same sobering mood.

"Bout takin' Turner down for good, sweetheart," he replied, "Is there anything else we should be talkin' 'bout?" he ironically asked, and she wanted to scream that there were piles of stuff they ought to be discussing, but that was beyond her strength, and she slowly shook her head.

"Nothing that comes to my mind right now," she softly replied.

"Good," he nodded his approval before he started speaking again, "Listen, if Turner worked with Harry, he might as well have other... partners of the kind. I think it might be safer for us if we work separately from now on."

She watched him in shock, deeply hurt with a feeling of betrayal. He couldn't do that to her, not after all that had just happened!

"Are you calling the partnership off? What happened to the 'if you in, you in, there's no gettin' out'?" she angrily asked, mimicking his tone.

"Relax sweetheart, we still partners. We're just... actin' as if we're not. Everyone must think we're on our own."

"Why?"

"Doubles Turner's work to face two separate targets. Forces him to engage more pawns in the battle."

"Hence increases our chances at cracking one," she completed, and he nodded with a quick smile that didn't reach his eyes, "Isn't it too late, though? I mean, we've been working together for a whole month, now," she pointed out.

"Actually nobody saw us together on a drop," Rio said.

And he was right, she thought. They'd been sharing the work, not doing it together. But the connection still seemed too easy to establish.

"We've spent a lot of time together anyway. He can't have missed that unless he's totally lost interest in the case," she worried out loud.

"Of course he knows that, sweetheart, and he probably figured the whole thing out. But all he can _prove_ so far is only that we sleep together on a regular basis, darlin', and it ain't a crime," he smirked and Beth felt herself blushing as she wondered what Turner knew exactly about the two of them. But then she remembered something he'd just said and a cold fist clasped around her heart.

"Someone could have seen us together. Last night," she whispered with a shiver.

"That makes one more reason to slow the game down for a while," Rio replied without denying her point about Harry's murder.

"But how do we do this?" she asked, overtaken by the practical side.

"I'm sure you can handle your part of the job without my help," he smirked, "And I'll still send you the schedules."

She shrugged. This was more or less already their pattern. He shared his to-do lists with her, and she could also benefit from the presence of his boys when she went on a drop or a meeting, but she had her own pool of customers and suppliers that she managed herself. Incidentally, these were mostly the ones she'd made deals with when she had tried to take over Rio's kingdom by herself. 

But there was something else in the way he was telling her to slow things down that sounded weird. To be honest, she felt a strange break-up vibe in his attitude that didn't exactly reassure her. Because since their intimate encounters were always initiated by a work meeting, what happened when the latter stopped?

"What about the rest of it?" she asked.

He considered her with an amused smile on his lips, "What d'you mean?"

"You know what I mean!" she retorted, annoyed.

"I want to hear you say it, darlin'," he teased, but she was already too anxious to feel playful.

"Us," she hoarsely said.

And the truth was, a part of her wanted to hear him tell her that this side of their relationship would be on a break too. She could barely look him in the eyes knowing how much she'd exposed herself the night before. And his words were repeatedly spinning in her mind. 

_You're as much a bad person as me._

He was the only one who could ever know about what she'd done. But it also meant that without him, she was free to tell herself it had never happened, to pretend, in front of everyone, that she was still a good person. Without his shadow discreetly coughing behind her back each time she'd want to proclaim to the world that she was an innocent lamb. But was it what she wanted, though? To be a lamb? She felt lost, confused, unsure of who she was and where she stood. She didn't know where her cold determination, her rage from last night had gone. All she knew was that Rio was the only person she knew who could fathom what she was experiencing right now, but he was also the only one she didn't want to be around in this moment of internal moral crisis.

"So there is an 'us'?" Rio ironically asked with a feigned surprise, and it felt as if an emotional ice bucket had been thrown at her.

"I don't know," she desperately whimpered, her body starting to shake uncontrollably.

She wanted to leave. She was already vulnerable from her murder acceptance process, and having to face an all-walls-up Rio in addition of that was beyond her strength. She needed time alone. She left the kitchen in a hurry, trying to find her way in the apartment to retrieve her clothes she'd been mindlessly and happily spreading everywhere the night before. She was messily getting dressed, halfway through a slight panic attack when she heard him in her back.

"Elizabeth."

She didn't answer, still in her hurry to leave.

"Hey..." he gently squeezed her shoulder, forcing her to turn around and face him, "That bad, huh?" he stated as he was peering at her face.

"Oh please, spare me your judgment!" she bitterly scolded him.

She was disappointed with herself for not being able to handle this the way she wished she did, while she'd wanted so much to keep up with the way Rio saw her. Hence she was convinced to be a disappointment for him as well, and she felt too ashamed to even look him in the eyes. She didn't understand how this whole thing worked. How she could tell that man she loved him in one magical moment when every cell from her body was screaming its unconditional love, relishing an intimate connection she'd never experienced with anyone, and then be crushed the very next day under the weight of invisible walls that would keep them apart without any chance of opening. It felt like facing a complete stranger, and she angrily pulled away from his touch. He immediately caught her hand though, and his grip was hard as he forcefully pulled her closer.

"Figure out what you want, Elisabeth," he hissed before he let her go.

She stepped back, giving him a wounded animal glance as she was rubbing her wrist, and she suddenly wondered when she'd see him again. Turner had probably tapped their phones already and she couldn't imagine Rio taking that risk, paranoid as he was.

"How will you contact me?" she coldly asked.

He blinked, looking like he was waking up from a bad dream, before he sighed, "Right."

He made a beeline to the living room and she followed, silently watching him as he retrieved two phones from a drawer.

"Here. New burners," he unnecessarily explained, "And just in case, no business talk over the phone, and no business texts. Only face to face. I don't care if Turner witnesses you sextin' me, but don't send anythin' related to work, okay?"

She nodded and took the phone, which suddenly reminded her of her regular one she'd left on the coffee table. She quickly fetched it in the idea of ordering an Uber ride and that was the moment she saw the pile of notifications. The missed calls from Ruby. The alarmed texts from Annie. Her heart sank in her chest.

"I gotta go!" she precipitately said. 

And of course it was an emergency. But not one that justified her leaving right now. The girls were both at work at this time of the day and she couldn't meet with them before late afternoon. The truth was, she was just looking for a pretext to flee from this unbearable, suffocating tension between Rio and her. She frantically made her way to the door, almost running at this point. 

"Elizabeth?" he suddenly called her back.

She stopped dead, panting, "Yeah?"

"You okay?"

She turned around in surprise and he gave her a worried look.

"Yeah, I just... I have a work thing," she tried.

Obviously she wasn't okay, he thought, everything about her was screaming the opposite of that. And he wanted to help her. He just didn't know how. He slowly walked towards her until he was close enough to rearrange her hair with his pinky, which she let him do although her hair was fine since he'd already done this exact same move half an hour before.

"You gotta stop holdin' everythin' inside of you, ma. Maybe Carman was dumb enough to buy it, but I ain't," he softly whispered.

"I'm not..." she started, but he stopped her with a finger on her lips.

"Don't," he muttered, "I don't want you to start lyin' to me."

His finger slipped under her chin, pulling her face up to his and he gently kissed her. She didn't pull out but he felt that she wasn't really into it and he didn't want her to force herself to please him so he ended it quicker than he'd have wanted.

"I'm sorry that I can't... I'm not... " she started.

"It's fine. Just call me when you feel better, Elizabeth," he whispered, staring at her, and despite the loving smile he'd put on his lips, his eyes were still expressing more concern than he'd normally show.

She took a deep breath. There was nothing she craved more than sheltering in the comfort of his presence, but she was anxious, trapped in her own skin, incapable of recognizing herself and that wall kept her far away from him. And it was honestly killing her. She could tell he was doing his best to keep the worst aspects of his personality in control and avoid hurting her, that instead he was choosing to show her his too scarce kindness, trying to be there for her, as much as he could, but she just couldn't take it right now.

"Thank you," she said with a broken voice.

She tiptoed to kiss him softly, almost apologetic that she couldn't give him more for now than the brevity of her lips against his. They stared at each other for a few more seconds, and she thought that she was one _I love you_ away from staying. But he didn't say it, chewing his bottom lip instead as he was gazing at her, and she turned away to open the door and leave the apartment, wiping two tears with the back of her hand.

While on her ride home, she listened to Ruby's voicemails and re-read Annie's messages. The girls had been careful enough to not let out any compromising word, they knew that there was more than one chance for their communications to be under Turner's watch, but the implied meaning of the whole thing was crystal clear. Forensics had eventually identified the bone from Palmerston. And it was Jeff's.

She spent the rest of the day in a strange mood that reminded her, in a much attenuated fashion, the days following Harry's boys rape attempt, when she'd oscillated between a sense of normality and the sudden reminder, every now and then, that something big had happened. And she didn't even know this time whether that something big was Harry's murder or Jeff's remains. Did it matter anyway? In both case there was a body connected to her and an FBI agent really eager to take her down with whatever he could use against her. It was mainly a matter of time at this point. Was that really what she'd become, now? A soon-to-be convict living on borrowed time? Everything felt so unreal. She was a stranger to her own body, to the point of sometimes wonder if she was dreaming, unsure of what was real and what was not. 

Neither did she know where Rio and her were standing right now. She'd looked at her new burner several times during the day, with an itchy urge to call him, to talk to him, to seek for comforting words and loving kindness from him. But she knew he'd be somehow hard on her, despite all his good intentions, because that was the number one rule of their partnership.

_You can do whatever you want, baby, but you clean your own mess._

She'd wanted to kill Harry, and dealing with the psychological side of the aftermath was her problem. Not his. And she couldn't tell him about Jeff. He'd lecture her once again about how she and the girls had screwed things up, and that was probably the truth, but definitely not what she needed to hear, especially from him. She'd been stupid enough to think that the way they had shared their feelings the night before would prevent their relationship to ever fall apart again, but it had turned out to have an exactly opposite effect. It had been too much at one time, and neither of them had mastered the strength to handle it.

"Beth, you okay?"

The question woke her up from her desperate and, frankly, a little obsessive thoughts and she blinked to face Annie's scrutinous look. Her and Ruby had come over as soon as they had could to discuss the potential consequences of the Palmerston case, and the three of them had quickly come to the conclusion that there was nothing else to do now but wait and see what would happen. And cross their fingers they wouldn't go down for that. It wasn't like they had much control over the situation anyway. Annie had insisted that Beth asked Rio to help them, but that wasn't her favorite option, especially now.

"Yeah, I was just..." Beth started.

The lie would come out easily, it was a second nature at this point, but something was holding her back. The way Rio had told her to stop keeping all the bad stuff for herself that morning had shaken her. He was the first person who'd ever fathomed the depth of the pit she threw everything in and then permanently carried with her. Nobody except him had ever understood the implacability with which she buried her feelings, pretended to anyone they didn't exist, to better fall head first in the well once she was alone. But maybe it was time to change that. She deeply inhaled.

"Girls, something happened last night. I... I told Rio I loved him," she quickly said, almost in a hurry, not giving herself time to think about what she was doing.

Obviously she couldn't tell them about Harry, but maybe sharing this little piece of her burden would help her ease a bit the weight that crushed her shoulders right now. Annie and Ruby's shocked looks on their faces weren't a surprise, though, but Beth still hoped she'd made the right decision with this.

There was a stunned silence during which Beth saw a whole gamut of expression printing themselves on her sister's face, but Annie didn't say anything.

"Did he say it back?" Ruby finally asked.

"Actually, he's the one who said it first," Beth answered, suddenly realizing the implications of _that_.

"Wait wait, wait, how long have you been dating, again?" Annie intervened, her eyebrows decidedly furrowed.

"We're not dating!" Beth protested.

"My point exactly," Annie said, crossing her arms on her chest, "Sweetie, it's too soon, you guys are getting over-excited about this, and it will just blow up at your faces! Best case scenario..." she added, mumbling and Beth was pretty sure that her sister was already contemplating the chances for that relationship to end-up in gunshots, again.

And she thought that maybe it had already blown up at their faces, judging from this morning's awkwardness, but she kept that for herself. One step at a time in this sharing feelings thing.

"I'm not sure you're entitled to give me relationship advice based on your own track record," she instead retorted with annoyance.

"Excuse me? Shall I remind you that I met Patrick's _parents_ last week-end? I'm perfectly capable of living an 'adult relationship'!" Annie counterattacked with air-quotes.

"After _a month_ of dating, so don't lecture me about things happening too soon!" Beth replied.

"At least we haven't said the L-word yet," Annie grumbled.

Beth sighed and raised her eyes at the skies. She did was truly happy for Annie that she'd apparently found someone nice who seemed really into her and was not police related —she'd made her background check— but if she was honest with herself, she always felt a little twitch in her heart every time she saw Annie glowing in her bubble of happiness. She kept telling herself that it was just a honeymoon phase, that Annie had a strong tendency to always go head over heels for guys, which would only harden her later fall. Not that she wished her that, no, but deeply she thought it was a little unfair that she struggled so much with Rio when things seemed so easy between Patrick and Annie, from what her sister said, anyway, since she had not met him in person yet.

"Annie's right," Ruby intervened, "You know I respect your decision even if I don't approve of it, but this may be happening a little too fast."

"I know. Things have been... weird ever since," Beth confessed.

And it indeed made her feel a little relieved to have said it out loud.

"Was there at least a special occasion for him to tell you that?" Annie wanted to know with a juicy expression on her face.

_Oh yeah, I had just happened to murder a misogynistic crime boss who'd tried to kill me!_

"A very special occasion, yeah," Beth thoughtfully muttered.

Annie and Ruby exchanged a glance that explicitly assumed it was something sexual they weren't sure they wanted to know about and they didn't ask.

"Well, I don't think there's anything that we can't help you fix, I'm sure it's nothing," Annie slowly started, "On the weird level scale, how bad is it now?"

Beth opened her mouth to answer, but the doorbell rang at this very moment, and the three of them exchanged panicked glances. At this point, it could be anyone, from Dean to the police, from a neighbor to Rio, although Beth couldn't picture the latter using the doorbell. Knocking was probably the highest courtesy effort he was capable of. They all stood up and gathered in front of the door, petrified, before Annie took one step further, grumbling something that sounded like, "Oh, for fuck's sake!" and opened it.

There was an astounded silence before Annie cleared her throat and slowly spoke with a blatant lack of enthusiasm, "Mary Pat. Long time no see."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Shameless self-promoting* I just realized that now I'm in the middle of two fics in progress, one with two people pretending they're in a relationship while they're not, and one with two people pretending they're not in a relationship while they (kinda) are. I might be a little obsessed with people pretending things. Or maybe it's just regular Brio dynamics!
> 
> That being said, I hope you liked this chapter, they're actually a lot of subplots coming and I'm having some troubles at finding the right place for everything so my updating pace might be a little slow for the moment. And yeah, I'm afraid we're back on an angsty, dark rollercoaster...


	2. Something Wicked This Way Comes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Do you feel it in the air _  
_Everything is changing world wasted by fear _  
_Everything is changing cross too great to bear _  
_ [...] _  
_Until nothing's what it seems _  
_There's nothing left to believe _  
_ [...] _  
_Something wicked this way comes _  
_It's been around since time begun _  
_It knows exactly what you've done _  
([Song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY32jy5VAdg) from **Diana Haunts and James Warburton**)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, I'm sorry this update took so long. I've had this chapter figured out for a long time but I got stuck with some writer's block, and I couldn't find the right vibe for what I wanted so I chose to focus on my other WIPs in the meantime until I got it back. 
> 
> And since it took me some time to get through all of it, it's a longer than usual 7k+ chapter so I hope you like it!!

"Hi. Can I come in?"

The girls were still staring blankly at Mary Pat's face which wore her usual expression of embarrassed shyness.

"Hell no!" Annie replied with a wince of disgust.

"Wait, Annie, wait," Beth intervened before she stepped forward and crossed her arms on her chest with a severe look at Mary Pat, "Why are you here?"

"Listen, I know you're not my biggest fans, and trust me, I'm not yours either!" Mary Pat scoffed, "But I need your help."

Ruby rolled her eyes, "Hello! Just like you said, we're not your biggest fans. Why on earth would we even _want_ to help you?"

Mary Pat bit her lower lip with her trademark Oh-it's-too-bad-I-just-happened-to-backstab-you look on her face before she mumbled, "Because I might have made a deal with the FBI regarding Jeff's case?"

She had at least the decency to look a little bit ashamed of herself. Beth sighed and closed her eyes, trying to push away that drowning feeling. This would never end. And right now she already had too much to process to be patient with this.

"Oh come on, what a surprise!" a decidedly angry Annie spat.

"Annie, shut up!" Beth exclaimed.

She definitely had no patience for Annie's childish sarcasms. And maybe it was something already instinctive, but despite her distressed and confused state of mind about all she was going through, she felt that bossy side of herself coming back in control. Just like whenever she'd go on a tense meeting with a client, her mind went all practical. Assessing the risks, trying to fathom the whole picture and make the right decision. A thought suddenly crossed her mind. _What would Rio do in such circumstances?_ Not involving killing Mary Pat like, right away?

"Alright, what do you want from us, then? Why don't you just give into your deal with your federal friends, huh?" she coldly asked Mary Pat.

"Do you mind if...?" Mary Pat tilted her head towards the inside of the house.

"Okay," Beth sighed, and she shifted to let Mary Pat in.

"Beth, what are you doing?" Annie whispered in the most audible way.

"I second Annie on this!" Ruby rolled her eyes at Beth.

Beth sighed. She didn't know what Mary Pat wanted, but she remembered her talk with Rio about cracking Turner's pawns. Maybe Mary Pat could be their chance at it. But she couldn't tell the girls that, couldn't explain to them why Turner was unreasonably chasing after Rio and her, not to mention that she'd just _killed_ someone, hence couldn't afford any tactical mistake. And she had to admit that handling this had at least the merits of distracting her from her moral crisis and her depressing thoughts about the whereabouts of her life.

"Let's just hear what she's got to say, that's it. Maybe it could even turn out to be useful," she told the girls, but Annie's disgusted wince told her she wasn't convinced.

The four women headed to the living room, and Mary Pat stood still, uncomfortably staring at Beth and obviously not daring to sit down until formally invited to do so.

"Please," Beth lightly waved her head, letting herself crash on the couch at the same time, with Annie and Ruby quickly following her move.

Mary Pat cleared her throat, "So... You may have heard that the FBI has found remains of Jeff's body," —Annie and Ruby rolled terrified eyes at this— "I don't know what you did with it, and I don't want to, but thanks to you, now everyone knows he's dead so I'm cut from his pension."

"If this is money that you want you can just get out," Beth threateningly hissed.

Maybe letting that crawling snake in her house had been a mistake all things considered. How could she have forgotten what a blackmailing cockroach Mary Pat was? She wouldn't give in that game again, though.

"No it's not that!" Mary Pat hurriedly replied as Annie and Ruby were already starting to get back on their feet to escort their visitor back to the front door, and Beth couldn't help but notice that the girls tended to behave more and more like Rio's sidekicks whenever she started to act like the boss, "Turner wants me to help him putting that on you," Mary Pat explained.

There was a deafening silence that Ruby broke, "I think we could use some more explaining here," she stated with an ice cold voice.

"Okay, here's the thing," Mary Pat obliged, "Turner, he... he knows what I did. I mean, about Jeff. And I cleaned the freezer and everything but... I mean I've watched CSI. I can't have removed it all so... He'll find evidences whenever he wants."

There was so much distress on her face that Beth almost felt sad for her, before she remembered the implacable blackmailer she'd been.

"So what, you want us to FBI-proof your house?" Annie asked with blatant annoyance.

Mary Pat ignored her as she kept talking to Beth, "I don't want to go to jail. And Turner is... like... okay with that. As long as he can arrest someone else instead."

"Me," Beth exhaled.

Mary Pat nodded, "It'll be either one of us."

"Why are you telling me all this? Why don't you just do as he asks, then?" Beth softly asked.

"You know, the reason why I don't want to go to jail, it's not really for myself," Mary Pat whispered, "I've got four kids. I just can't do this to them," she added with a weak smile, and Beth got it.

They both were mothers, and Mary Pat knew that. As much as Beth hated Mary Pat, she didn't want her kids to grow up without their mom. And Mary Pat was probably feeling the same way about Beth's kids. Such a proof of soul elevation surprised her from Mary Pat though, but she nodded, admitting that it made sense.

"Besides, even if I turn you in, he'll always have me on the hook for this, it's never going to end," Mary Pat added, and okay, that sounded more like the selfish version of her that Beth knew.

But now Beth was starting to see why she was asking for her help. And apparently Ruby got it too.

"What is this all about, then, Mary Pat?" she asked with a spit-it-out-already tone.

"Well, it would be easier for everyone if he wasn't there, wouldn't it?" Mary Pat chuckled before she slowly added, "And I figured, you know people who could... handle this."

"You want us to kill Turner for you?" Ruby widened her eyes in shock.

"You don't have to do it yourself, though, I'm sure you know people shady enough to—"

"This is crazy, we're not doing that," Beth cut her.

"Then I hope the judge won't be too harsh on you," Mary Pat replied.

It _was_ crazy, Beth thought. But after everything she'd already done? Besides, it wasn't like Rio and her weren't already planning to take Turner down, they just hadn't spoken about murder yet, but to be honest she didn't know what Rio had in mind so far. And maybe this could be turned into something useful.

"If we do what you ask, it'll come with a price," she said with that steady voice she used to negotiate deals.

Annie suddenly intervened, "Beth, are you out of your mind? We're not dealing with that—"

"Okay, can you excuse us for a minute?" Beth asked Mary Pat, "We need a little talk. Just the three of us."

She dragged Ruby and Annie in the kitchen, and Annie exploded, "What the hell, Beth?"

"We can't go back to this, please don't tell me you want to _murder_ someone!" Ruby seconded with pleading eyes.

Beth couldn't tell them that regarding the murder part, she was already past this point. Nor could she tell them that it was the very reason she wanted to keep Mary Pat around. If Mary Pat was talking to Turner, maybe she could bring her some of the evidences Rio and her desperately needed to take him down before it all backfired at them.

"Think about it!" she whispered to the girls, "We can turn her into a snitch! She can tell us all about what's going on with Jeff's case so we don't get arrested."

"And we have to _kill_ a federal agent!" Ruby insisted.

"We're not going to kill him, we'll find a solution!" Beth tried to reassure her.

"Whatever, why do you even trust her?" Annie asked, "For all you know, she's turning in the three of us tomorrow, the woman's congenially untrustworthy!"

Beth sighed. Annie had a point, she had no clue about whether Mary Pat would betray them or not.

"Besides," Annie added, "She said it would be her or you, so why don't we just let Turner 'handle her'?" she asked with air-quotes that made Ruby gasp.

"Don't tell me there will be air-quotes, Annie!" she begged in a hiss.

"Because he won't 'handle her'!" Beth replied mimicking Annie's tone and air-quotes, "Girls, we know that Turner doesn't care about Mary Pat especially if he can have me instead. It's just a threat he agitates at her face to scare her. If we turn her offer down, she'll dig as deep as she can to take us down. And I'm telling you, she won't have to go really far for that!"

The girls gave her terrified looks, "Why are you so sure? Oh my God, Beth did you do something you didn't tell us about?" Annie asked with wide eyes and a hand on her mouth.

"No I didn't!" Beth protested, "But we've already done enough to be sent away for a long time if we're not playing this the smart way."

"Wow. That's what Gangfriend taught you? When did you get so reckless about crime?" Annie scoffed with contempt.

"It has nothing to do with him!" Beth protested with absolute bad faith, because, hum, yeah, it clearly had.

"Girls!" Ruby intervened, "You're not helping, both of you. What should we do with _her_?" she waved her head at Mary Pat who was still waiting in the living room.

"We do as I said. Turn her into a double agent until Turner isn't a threat anymore," Beth firmly replied.

"I don't trust her, I tell you, this is a mistake!" Annie insisted, but Beth decidedly ignored her.

They didn't have any better option anyway. They headed back to the living room and Mary Pat raised her head at them.

"We'll protect you," Beth announced, "But you'll have to help us. We need you to keep pretending you're working for him, so you can give us heads-up about the case, and evidences that he's corrupted. That's the only way to take him down. Is that okay for you?"

"I thought I said you'd kill him," Mary Pat shook her head with a fake cheering smile.

"Killing him wouldn't solve anything," Ruby said before Beth opened her mouth to answer, "He'd get replaced with someone else and it would restart all over again. Trust me I know how these things work, my husband used to be a cop," she added with a tone that clearly indicated that she knew the part Mary Pat had played when Stan had lost his job.

Mary Pat looked away, seeming to process the terms of their deals before she turned back at Beth's eyes, "Fine."

"And remember that we don't trust you, so the second it looks like you went off the rail our deal is over. And so are you," Beth concluded with her most convincing Boss Bitch voice.

Mary Pat nodded, fully aware that she was walking on thin ice from every side, "Sounds fair enough," she mumbled, "I guess I'll see you very soon, then."

She gave them an embarrassed smile before she stood up and headed to the door. None of the girls bothered to escort her.

It was already late in the evening, but at that same moment, Agent Jim Turner was still in his office, thoughtfully contemplating the crime scene pictures his team had taken earlier that day. Seemed like this old Harry had finally met his fate. He wasn't going to weep for him though, just hoped the guy had been smart enough not to let any evidence of their past collaboration behind him. That was quite bothering actually. Smartness definitely wasn't the quality Turner had hired Harry for. He was just a silhouette in the background of the big picture, a button he'd tried to push to reach at either Rio or Ms. Boland, and preferentially both of them. He shrugged with a low whistle. There was no need to worry right now about Harry. He was in charge of the case anyway, so if something came up, it would be more than easy for him to make it disappear. Wouldn't be the first time.

He wasn't surprised of Harry's fate. The guy wasn't such a big fish to really have a lot of enemies, he wasn't a _threat_ to many people except the ones Turner had used Harry against, but he'd expected something like that to happen at some point after he'd heard about Harry's boys execution. Rio's courtesy, for sure, he'd studied that man's style for long enough to recognize it at first sight. That last one had incidentally confirmed what he'd been suspecting from the very beginning, without really believing it though. Because he was there in that goddamn loft, tied up and gagged, alright, but he had seen it all. He'd seen her shooting him, had witnessed Rio spitting out his hatred and anger on his hospital bed. But it had seemed that despite all that had happened, Rio had still cared about her enough to murder the people who had hurt her.

Some things never change, though, and, lucky for Turner, Rio was also still selfish enough to have given her away immediately when asked to, or at least did he pretend, since it had turned out that the bitch wasn't dead after all. Turner wasn't quite sure about whether Rio had set up the whole thing or not, but the two of them had not sent a very united signal after that. Couldn't have gone better for him though. He'd been looking for a way to break them apart and destroy their mutual trust, thinking that the busier they would be fighting each other, the easier it would be for him to take them down. But apparently they had succeeded at blowing that away themselves without his help. Congrats, guys! He'd just watched them tearing each other apart and coming to him one after the other, and he'd really thought he'd finally won when she'd given it all. Not that he had left her much choice, though, she knew that it would be her or him, and she'd given up on him, just like he'd planned. Selfish people were so easy to manipulate he'd thought then. From there, all he'd had to do was sending Harry to finish the job. Arresting Rio was one thing, it was his freaking _job_, but her... it was different. He wanted to erase her from the surface of the earth. 

She was a freak. A monstrosity. All along his career, he had seen a lot of criminal types. From white-collars to small scale thugs. He'd seen people driven to crime because of poverty, even hunger sometimes, as well as true psychos and perverts. As the years had gone by, he'd understood that there were a lot of reasons for someone to join the dark side, some of them even forgivable. Even Rio might have mitigating circumstances if he gave it a closer look. But the people like her were the ones he hated the most. Because they had had a choice. He'd seen enough low profile criminals to tell the difference. She had a family, a house, a social circle, this middle-class way of life that a lot of people would have killed for. And yet she'd turned to crime, because she had _chosen_ to. And it drove him crazy, that ultimate form of mental sickness, getting the chance to be good and yet turning into evil. And he felt like this was more than a job, it was his _mission_ to stop people like her, people to whom he even denied any kind of human dignity. She deserved to end her miserable life behind bars, at the very least, or preferably to just end it. Period.

And he'd been so close to victory then, but Rio had escaped and she... had escaped too. From _Harry_. How horribly incompetent the guy must have been, to fail at killing an unarmed woman! Until he assumed Rio had showed up to save her ass. He couldn't get that. Even when they seemed to fight and hate each other, in the end they kept having each other's back. He was pretty sure she had warned Rio about his imminent arrest, he wouldn't have escaped otherwise. It seemed that he had spectacularly failed at turning them into mutual enemies, just when he'd thought he'd finally made it to the finish line. But this time she wouldn't be able to escape, he had surrounded her with too many eyes on her life for her to dismantle them all. At least he hoped so. And it wasn't like he didn't have a _choice_ of bodies to put on her.

And that new case... Well it was a blessing, he smiled. Oh, he could tell it wasn't Rio's work. He'd seen the pictures of Harry's handymen's bodies. It had been messy. But Harry had been executed with only one bullet. No hitting, no biggest dick demonstration. Definitely not Rio's style. It had been clean, efficient. He didn't want to sound sexist with this, but that crime scene embodied his idea of a feminine way of giving death. It was the work of someone who liked things neat and accurate. Someone used to household enough to unconsciously think about minimizing the amount of blood. Someone cold enough to kill with practical rationality. Someone with a good reason to murder Harry. He was convinced it was her work, although he couldn't prove it yet. But if she'd finally crossed that line, taking her down would be a piece of cake. He couldn't wait.

Meanwhile, later that night, Beth was sitting all alone in her living room, wondering if she'd taken the right decision regarding Mary Pat. Annie had a point. Mary Pat had never been trustworthy, but she might be her only chance with Turner. The guy was smart, cautious, obsessively paranoid, and the more Beth was thinking about it, the more she came to the conclusion that finding evidences of how corrupted he was wouldn't be easy. So maybe having an insider who actually physically interacted with him and had a chance to enter his office was her only way in. Provided Mary Pat wouldn't betray her.

She sighed. She was just going in circles with this. She didn't know what to do. What if she'd just endangered everyone with this? Well, even if Mary Pat had been wired — Oh God, she couldn't believe she hadn't even checked that! — they hadn't said anything incriminating yet, but if they kept doing business together, she'd have to show her some of her cards at some point, without any certainty that Mary Pat wasn't a direct channel to Turner's ear. She wished she could ask for Rio's advice on this, but she was afraid he may not approve of her decision. She couldn't tell him about that, not until she made sure she'd been right. 

For approximately the millionth time in the evening, she looked at her burner, which had obstinately kept a black screen. Why wasn't he checking on her? And yeah, okay, he'd been the one telling her to call _him_ when _she_ would be ready for it, but still. She'd have appreciated a _text_. Of course, if she wanted to speak to him so much, she could have called. Or texted. And she'd meant to, a hundred times during the day, but something had kept stopping her. She wasn't ready, wasn't finished processing all that had happened with Harry. She didn't want to have to face all-walls-up Rio again and she wasn't sure of his current state of mind. And now there was all this stuff with Mary Pat and Jeff's case, that she wasn't ready to tell him about yet. So. She'd just stared at her burner.

And she kept doing that on the following days, except she even dialed the number several times before erasing the whole line. She was starting to feel better about Harry, mostly because thinking about Mary Pat was distracting her, though. But she had also realized that playing the Boss Bitch with the girls while negociating her deal with Mary Pat was something she still truly enjoyed. It had reassured her about her life choice of becoming Rio's partner, about killing Harry. That was still who she was, and maybe that new, and kind of bloody, step had been a little premature, but she couldn't say it wasn't logic either.

One evening, she almost felt cured, and she wanted to call him. To hear his voice. But right when she eventually found the courage to do it, there was a fight between the kids about what they should watch on TV, and it took her almost an hour to wipe the tears, cut the screams and get it all back in control. And then the moment was gone, and she was just feeling exhausted and a little bit confused from her moment with the kids. Could she be a murderer and a mother at the same time? Weren't those things antagonistic? Did killing someone automatically made her a bad mom? She tried to work for a while on her deliveries schedule, but the questions kept running through her head and she decided to go to bed before she got a headache.

She barely got a minute to herself on the next day, between the kids, the bookclub and the PTA. It was the kind of day she used to love before... before everything, and now she just found it insufferable. It wasn't until the night that she could finally rest in her couch, alone, with a glass of bourbon in one hand, and Rio's burner in the other. It hadn't rang once in a week. She sighed. She was afraid that if she called him, he might understand from her voice that something was bothering her, and she didn't want him to know about Mary Pat yet. But she was dying for news from him. Alright, then, calling was probably a bad idea, but. She texted him. Two words.

_Miss you_

Her thumb stood still for at least a minute above the 'send' button before she pressed it and took a sip of bourbon at the same time. What a relief. And then she freaked out. What the hell, Beth? Why did she have to send something so emotional? What if he didn't answer? What if he _did_ answer? She shouldn't have done that. She should turn off that phone before she did any more mistakes. She was about to torment herself for much longer but the phone soon buzzed with an answer, temporarily freeing her from her anxious thoughts.

_Miss you too_

She frowned. What was that supposed to mean? Was it calling for an answer? Was he just politely replying to her text without meaning it? And why didn't he use any emojis? God, texts without any kind of punctuation were so hard to interpret! She couldn't believe Annie was the one who had taught her that, by the way. As it turned out, getting an answer was even worse than not getting any. She tried to calm down, realizing she was breaking down like a basic teenager who'd just been asked out by her crush. And just when she finally started to think like an adult again, the phone vibrated. Again.

_You okay?_

She sighed. She wasn't sure of what she was allowed to say through this channel. The phones were new, hence they were few chances that Turner had them tapped already, but one could never be sure. Alluding to Harry's murder wouldn't be a good idea then, and maybe implying that she wasn't okay was a clue _per se_. She spent another five minutes torturing herself, before she finally settled for something.

_Yeah..._

Annie had told her once that in the texting convention, suspension points were a subtext indication, implying that there was more. She had no idea if that was true, though, but maybe Rio would get it. He didn't reply for half an hour, which drove her to a level of anxiety she'd barely ever reached before. Maybe she'd said something she shouldn't have. Maybe he was mad at her right now. Maybe... Stop it! She shook her head. Okay, she was having a couple of rough days and she may have drank too much already, and maybe she was frustrated that she couldn't say much on that burner, and sure she missed him, but she had to stop acting like a baby. _You should be ashamed_ she told herself before she entered her bathroom to get ready for the night. When she finally went to bed, she grabbed the burner to turn it off and she discovered that Rio had sent her one last text.

_Sweet dreams..._

She smiled. Annie was right, this suspension points thing worked really good. She'd had the hell of a bad dream about Harry during the last night she'd spent with Rio, and he was obviously referring to that. Or was he just implying a goodnight kiss? She didn't know what to reply though. She couldn't get out of her mind the idea that maybe somewhere there were FBI guys in a satellite truck with a crapload of electronic material spying on their textchain, and she didn't want them to witness her sending kisses or cute heart emojis to Rio. And, well, on second thought, she might not be ready either to imagine _Rio_ receiving these. She finally gave up at answering with anything relevant and she decidedly switched the device off. She was insanely behaving about it, though, so it was probably for the best and the sake of her sleep.

On the next day she resisted the temptation to send more messages. She felt silly about her break down on the night before, but the good news was that she didn't freak out about Harry anymore. She was on her way in this acceptance process and felt better in her own skin. In the early afternoon, she met up in her car with Mary Pat to trade information and give her further instructions about what she expected from her. Mary Pat didn't have much to give her yet about Turner though. Annie had insisted to attend, although she quietly stayed on the backseat and let Beth lead the whole meeting. It wasn't before Mary Pat was gone that Annie broke the silence.

"Still no," she defyingly stated with her arms crossed on her chest.

Beth rolled her eyes, "Listen, I wish we had a more... reliable solution but we have to deal with what we have, okay?"

She had adopted the same calming tone she had when she tried to solve a crisis with the kids, and it probably grated on her sister's nerves, judging from her angry voice.

"Let me put this straight for you!" Annie snapped back, "We —I mean Ruby and I— buried a _decomposed body_ because of that woman! I'm not going on that road again!"

"And I'm telling you that you won't!"

"Did you talk to Rio about that?"

The question was unexpected but Beth quickly pulled herself together.

"Yeah!" she nodded vigorously.

Anything to stop Annie's train of doubts and questions. She already had enough bad stuff to deal with. Besides, it wasn't like she didn't _plan_ to tell Rio at some point so what was the harm? It was just a lie by anticipation.

"And he approved of it," Annie incredulously frowned.

"Well, yeah, I mean we felt the same way about it," Beth added.

One more lie wouldn't kill her, she thought with a biting irony.

"And since when do you need a _man's_ approval to trust me with what I do?" she revengefully threw at her sister.

Annie pursed her lips, "Low blow, Beth, low blow," she hissed.

But she kept her mouth shut after that.

Once back at home, Beth remembered that Dean was supposed to come in the early evening to take the kids for the week-end. She mentally ugh-ed at the thought. He'd been acting really weird lately.

And he did it again. He came at her house a little earlier than he was supposed to, using that _opportunity_ to share a drink with her that she didn't have the energy to refuse.

"You know, I've been thinking, and, um, I think we should try to spend some more time together. I mean with the kids. As a whole family."

She crossed her arms on her chest, suspicious, "Why, Dean?"

"For the kids, Beth," he replied with a slightly shaming tone implying that pushing _him_ away meant that she was a bad mother. 

She narrowed her eyes at him, "You know we'll never get back together, right? The divorce has been officialized. It's over."

"I know, Beth, I know. It's just... I've been missing you, and the kids, well... they keep asking when things will get back to _normal_."

"Well they won't! And the kids are just in a phase, they'll get over it!" she impatiently replied.

There was a sudden pause.

"Just think about it," Dean finally articulated.

Dean had thought this through like a million times. He'd always wanted Beth back, and he knew she would eventually be. This was her life, her family. Twenty years, Jesus, twenty years, that wasn't something you wiped like blue marker on a whiteboard! More like chalk on a blackboard, actually, it leaved _traces_. Him and Beth had had four children together, _four!_ He had been the one who'd helped her get out of her high-school shell of shyness. He had been there for support when her sister had had to deal with her teenage pregnancy and its adorable consequence named Sadie. He winced at the thought that he was now supposed to call _her_ his nephew. Beth had kept telling him to keep an open mind, but he really didn't get that stuff, and he strongly disapproved of Annie's unconditional support. He would _at least_ have a serious talk with them if one of his kids ever had such a weird fad. Which he hoped would never happen. 

Anyway. Back to the Beth point. For twenty years he had provided for what she needed. For what their family needed. So yeah, he'd screwed things up a bit with Amber, and, well, _the others_, but he had made amends to her. Had acknowledged his mistakes. Had even admitted that her getting in trouble with that gangster she had had the audacity to try to make him believe was the bouncing house guy was fair enough. She had the right to have an affair on her side if she wanted a revenge, he'd accepted it. Just like he had agreed on signing the divorce papers later. Clearly, she needed some space, and he had given that to her, allowing himself some dating time too in the process, because why not, but he'd always seen that as a temporary phase she'd eventually come back from. After all, it couldn't be anything but a fling, there was no acceptable future with a guy like that who was a constant threat. He couldn't believe she'd kept sleeping with that guy after he'd _shot_ him. But he'd forgiven her even that.

Bouncing House Guy on the other hand... He hated him. To the point of hiring hitmen to eliminate him from the picture. Okay, maybe it had not been his smartest move so far, but it was an understandable one, considering who he was fighting against. The kind of self-involved thug who thought he was superior to anyone because he carried a gun and wore scary tattoos. What a prick. All Dean wanted now was to see him away from his family, away from her. He had no right to touch her. He still remembered the way that bastard had touched her face in an entitled fashion, and how she'd let him have this, right in front of him as he was tied up to a chair and about to receive a bullet in his chest. How he had been psychotically attacked that night, hit and abducted. The violence. That memory still made him want to puke. What could possibly attract her in this?

At some point he'd thought it was over, though. He'd seen her coming back one day in the early morning with a defeated face, and she had cried in his arms, and he'd told himself he'd finally won. He'd never asked her what had happened that night but he'd gotten the certainty that it was over. Whatever-his-name was over. And he'd tried his best at being there for her, doing things on her terms regarding the kids, accepting everything from her. They'd even hooked up once, and he'd thought that victory was on its way. But shortly after that everything had changed again. The last minute changes of plans with the kids. The enigmatic messages. The avoidance. A suspicious bandage below her shoulder that he wasn't stupid enough to ignore what it meant. And finally she'd insisted on officializing the divorce, tearing up the last piece of paper that kept her tied to him. And although he'd never had a straightforward confirmation of it, he'd assumed Bouncing House Guy was back. Pushing _him_ back where he'd started. And now, despite all of his efforts and attempts, she didn't seem to be anyway nearer to a coming back to reason and real life than she was a year before. He had never meant to push things that far, but when that FBI agent had come to him, he couldn't say no. He'd waited, he'd been patient, but this nonsense had lasted for already too long. How could she not see that the kids were suffering from this, that _he_ was suffering from this?

But maybe she didn't have a choice. Maybe that guy was forcing her to stay by his side, he probably had a strong hold on her, and she was just... trapped. And there was only one way for him to get her out of it. Because of course he was also and mainly doing this for her, he would do everything it would take to rescue her and help her break away from that guy. Because she would always be the love of his life and she belonged to him, she belonged to his side. With their kids. Forever.

"I'm coming for you, Bethie, I'll get you out. Time to come home," he promised with a look at the kids playing in the living room, and a painful wince distorted his face.

After Dean's departure, Beth freaked out. She didn't like the way he was trying to force some room for him again in her life, as if he still didn't get it. She understood his point about the kids, though, she even felt a little bit guilty about that, but his constant changes of attitude were confusing. Not so long ago, he was bragging about his new girlfriend, and all of a sudden he was back in his not really subtle allusions about eventually getting back together with her. Which would _never_ happen. Ugh. Seeing Dean made her miss Rio even more. She hadn't heard from him since his last text the night before, and his absence was physically painful.

"Oh, fuck off!" she finally mumbled, grabbing at the burner.

She was depressed and alone in that big house at dusk, were a few comforting words too much to ask for? He picked up almost right away.

"Yeah?"

His voice felt like a warm blanket around her shoulders and she smiled.

"I... I just wanted to hear you," she softly explained.

"Well, you just did, so what now?" he sarcastically replied, and she could literally hear him smirk.

"Um..." she started, unsure, until an idea crossed her mind, "Hey, would you fancy a... truce?"

God, hearing his voice made her miss him even more. She wanted to see him now. And to talk to him. Besides, she had to tell him about Mary Pat. And if anyone was spying on their conversation, she at least knew with absolute certainty that Rio and her would be the only ones to understand what _that_ meant, and where they would meet.

There was a silence at the other end of the line, and she couldn't tell if he was still there, until he hoarsely replied, "Okay. Gimme two hours."

She was already in the hotel forty-five minutes later though, and maybe this was her way of making it up for the time she'd been more than two hours late. She texted him the room number, and then she waited, growingly anxious as she realized that she had absolutely no clue about his current state of mind. Maybe he was still in this cold, all walls up version of him she didn't know how to deal with, although his voice on the phone had been pretty cheerful.

She'd been wrong to worry. As soon as she opened the door after hearing his soft knock, he had his lips on hers and his palms on her cheeks, and she lost herself in the kiss, feeling as if she'd found water in the desert. He firmly pressed her against the wall, his hands leaving her face to press bruises in her hips and she wrapped her arms around him. 

She managed to break away from his mouth a few times to articulate between his passionate kisses, "Just to be clear... this is not... why I wanted to see you... but we'll talk later, right?"

His throat hummed approvingly, and she let it all go after that, losing herself in their embrace and letting him take her basically everywhere in the room. It had been barely a week since the last time they had seen each other, but it emotionally felt like months.

It wasn't before she had lost the count of her orgasms that she could rest in the bed, naked and snuggled in his arms while he was lazily kissing her neck and the line of her shoulder.

"You followed the procedure?" he asked against her skin.

"Yes."

"Checked for wires and everythin'?"

"Yes," she sighed.

During one of his paranoid phases, Rio had came up with a twelve steps procedure to secure their meeting places, and although Beth knew there was literally no possible way for their room to be tapped, she'd followed it, knowing that he would chide her if she didn't.

"So what you wanted to talk to me about?" he drawled at her ear shell with a tickling breath, and she seriously considered the idea of just going back to fucking him.

She knew this was the moment she'd been avoiding. She _had to_ tell him about Mary Pat. She'd already lied to Annie about it, and he had the right to know, this was part of their operation against Turner. Besides, she desperately wanted to hear him tell her she'd made the right choice. Except she knew he wouldn't. He didn't give rotten eggs a second chance. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth.

"I have this big delivery coming next week," she whispered.

She just couldn't. It felt so good to be lying there with him, she just... didn't want to ruin it. And it wasn't like she didn't have this stressful big delivery coming anyway.

"So? You nervous?"

"Yeah, it scares me a bit. I've never been on a huge one like that on my own."

"I'm sure you'll nail it. You my Boss Bitch," he gently comforted her with a kiss.

"Can I take some of your boys to come with me?"

"Sure."

"Thanks," she sighed in relief, "Oh God I missed you!" she couldn't help but add.

He held her tighter with a small gasp and an indescribable look in his eyes, and she kissed him, and before she knew it they were, hum, doing it again. And again.

He'd missed her too. So much. She seemed to feel better about the shit with Harry, although he hadn't dared to ask. This was something she had to deal with alone. Not that he didn't want to help, though, but there was just not so much he could do about it but wait and hope he wouldn't lose her over this. And apparently it seemed that he wouldn't. She was back. His partner was back. More rock-solid than ever. Made her incredibly hotter too. He knew hers wasn't a booty call, and he hadn't meant to just take her against a wall instead of saying "Hi" but he just... couldn't resist to her. He loved her. So. Fucking. Much.

And it made him truly happy. Seeing her come back at him when she'd decided she was ready for it. She seemed to be back into hard work too, seriously asking him about deliveries and stuff. He'd never had trusted her that much, and he was glad that it was finally happening after all they'd been through together. It felt good, he thought, before they both fell asleep in the tight embrace of their afterglow.

Annie was puzzled. Beth's apparent confidence in Mary Pat didn't reassure her. Like the hell no. And even after she'd told her that Rio was okay with it, she... kinda still wasn't. Maybe she'd missed a clue or two, but so far the equation Turner + Mary Pat had never boded anything good for them, and she couldn't see why it would go differently this time. Like this bullshit about caring about Beth kids? Since when had Mary Pat developed a _conscience_? Besides, she didn't understand why it was so important for Beth to have a snitch around Turner. Sure, the dude was a freak, but that wasn't exactly fresh news, they should be used to it.

And okay, maybe Gangfriend and Beth had good reasons for trusting the little piece of trash that Mary Pat represented to her, but she didn't get it. What the hell, she was supposed to be the irresponsible one making all the worst choices, not Beth! Only one way to find out, though. She wasn't sure it was a good idea, he wasn't exactly the most friendly kind of guy, but she still had his number from that time Ruby and her had tried to work for him without Beth. What would be the harm after all? She just wanted to ask for a piece of knowledge.

The Fine & Frugal parking lot was already dark when Rio smoothly sneaked inside Annie's car on the next evening.

"Wanted to see me?" he asked with impatience in his voice.

"Hi, nice to see you too!" Annie retorted with a snort.

How someone so obsessive about manners like Beth could fancy a guy with such an obvious lack of any basic rule of savoir-vivre?

Rio didn't even bother to react to her point and he made it straight to his, "Whatchu want?"

She tried to chose her words carefully, "Well, since I'm apparently and officially a goon now, I figured I could use some extra knowledge about how all of this works, and so I thought I should learn from the best, right?"

He rolled his eyes in annoyance. Accepting to meet Elizabeth's lunatic sister had been a mistake, he had better things to do with his time than teaching work stuff to some bitches who thought they were a part of it just cause they got to see a glimpse of shit.

"Al'ight, what you wanna know?" he asked in an effort to be nice, "You got two questions."

"Wow, guess who's feeling generous tonight! If you're as much a giver in the sack, I really don't get what Beth likes about you!"

He thought that she was lucky he'd made it a personal rule to never hit a woman.

"Ain't got the whole night, please be quick!" he grunted.

But Annie was out of control, "Is that what she said?" she asked with a mischievous grin that left her face the instant she saw Rio's murdering expression, "Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I was just trying to lighten the mood! You still scare me a bit, you know?"

Her confession didn't soften his mood though, as he approved, "Good," and suddenly feeling the need to clear any doubt about what Elizabeth saw in him he added, "And for the record, when I give you two questions, Elizabeth usually gets twenty."

Annie raised her eyebrows in shock, not expecting to see Rio being so explicit about his relationship with Beth, but she resisted the itching need to place another salacious double entendre.

"So? Question one?" Rio bossily asked.

"What makes you so confident about Mary Pat snitching around Turner for us?"

There was a sudden, thick silence. And judging from the expression on Rio's face, Annie suddenly sensed that there would be no question two that night. Ooops. Turned out she wasn't the only one who made bad choices, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you feel like Beth is sewing her own shroud and nailing her own coffin, well... she is. Again. 🙈🙈
> 
> On a funnier note, it wouldn't surprise me if Dean turned out to be a little transphobic. 😂😂
> 
> About that, there were a lot of different POV in this chapter, and I hope it didn't feel too much confusing to read. Let me know what you thought about it, whether you liked it or not, and if you'd be interested in keeping having different character POVs, including 'villains'.🤔


	3. Holy Ground

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _It's been a while since I told you that I hate you _  
_You've turned the truth inside out _  
_Don't turn your back when I face you, or I'll make you _  
_You turned my world upside down _  
_You get inside my head, I want you out _  
_'Cause I've been betrayed on holy ground _  
_Burying the truth with lies fed up how you justify _  
_And I hate it and I hate it _  
_You're so despicable when you're acting unreasonable _  
_And I hate it and I hate it _  
_Your words like firing guns, bullets raining _  
_The way you hurt me 'cause you never wanna face it _  
([Song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VzqQiffpy8) from **Within Temptation**)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, thank you so much for your feedbacks about the multi POVs in last chapter, I guess I'll keep giving you insights of everyone's head once in a while, then! 😀
> 
> I'm really sorry this update took so long, life has been pretty wild lately, but the good news is, I have finally figured out most of the narrative arcs in this story so I might be able to write what's coming next faster now that every piece of the puzzle has finally found its place.
> 
> Just a little warning though, this chapter contains graphic depictions of physical pain and injuries that might be uncomfortable to read. 
> 
> Oh, and if you were wondering, yeah, the angst is back!

Saying that he was furious would have been an understatement. Rio was beyond that point. After his disastrous meeting with Elizabeth's sister, he hadn't been able to get rid of that persistent feeling of betrayal. She was doing things behind his back, risky things, to make matters worse. Who knew what else she'd been hiding from him, then. He'd tried to find explanations, to give her excuses, but he just didn't get it. Not that he was looking forward to it, but he had to talk to her. She was his partner, and, well, _other things_ too, but it didn't mean that she could endanger him and his boys without any consequences. Anyone else with only ten percent of her track record would already be decomposing in the woods by now. Maybe he'd been too soft with her, all things considered.

And it had to happen right after he'd started to finally trust her, to finally feel solid ground under his feet replacing the quicksand that had defined their relationship for the past two years. And it hurt. So much. He'd thought they could be something, he'd wanted it, badly, but maybe it was just in his head after all. He'd told her more than once that they needed to trust each other, that she had to stop keeping all to herself, that he wouldn't let her lie to him. And yet, she just remorselessly kept doing all those things, as if nothing had changed, as if he was the only one dreaming of more. Could they ever be in a good place after that? Even assuming that she had a very good explanation to this, and she'd better have, could he ever trust her again?

Beth was finalizing her weekly agenda, trying to solve a conflicted schedule between Kenny's karate class and a cash drop when she heard the slight creaking her ear always associated with the door to the backyard and she raised her head.

She cocked an eyebrow at his sight, "I thought we weren't supposed to meet here?"

So much for enduring Rio's paranoid phases about not giving the feds any chance to frame them together if he'd just blew it all away himself by showing up in the most likely watched place of all.

"Yeah, I thought a lotta things too," he defiantly replied, and she frowned.

"Huh? What are you doing here?"

"You got summin you wanna tell me?" he asked, his tone ice cold.

"What do you mean? And stop talking to me like I'm a child!" she angrily spat.

She hated when he would reproachfully circle around something she'd assumingly done wrong. And she hated the idea that he ultimately got to decide whether she was doing things right or wrong.

"You really think you could do this behind my back, huh?" he insisted, and she shivered, starting to see where this was going.

Guilt clasped its fierce grip around her throat and she deeply exhaled, trying to ease her discomfort. She should have told him. She'd meant to. But now that he apparently knew, it would make it a lot more complicated to explain. There was no point in denying anything, though.

She sighed, "How did you find out?"

She suddenly thought that maybe this meant that Mary-Pat had fooled her, maybe she'd been speaking to the feds, and somehow Rio knew about it through the shady connections he had with the FBI she didn't really want to know about.

He chuckled, "What's the first thing I ever told you 'bout rotten eggs?"

"That they contaminate the others," she almost automatically answered.

He nodded, "Yup. Turns out you got more than one now."

She raised her eyes at him and she met his gaze, so cold and angry that her heart skipped a beat. He hadn't looked at her like this since... probably the early aftermath of her shooting him, when he had Demon watching her while she was working for him. She'd thought they were past this for good, and finding out they weren't was hurtful.

"I'm sorry okay? I mean, I was going to tell you!" she finally said in a reconciliation attempt.

It wasn't that much of a big deal, was it? They'd done way worse to each other in the past.

"Oh yeah? When? Between _'please, fuck me'_, and _'yes, keep doing that'_?" he hurtfully snapped back.

She blushed. This was a low blow, even from him and she gave him a furious glare.

"So you don't approve?" she asked, crossing her arms on her chest.

"Course I don't," he said and suddenly she was sick of the way he always patronized her, telling her they were partners but in the end still being the one and only boss.

"See? This is exactly the reason why I wanted to wait before telling you, I just wanted to give it a shot first!"

He angrily considered her. He'd known her smarter than that.

"Well, lemme tell you summin', Elizabeth. In this lane of work, you don't give shots. You don't get the luxury to fail!" he shouted at her.

But the thing was, it wasn't true, she thought. Rio had taken some risks before too.

"Oh really? Isn't it what you did with me back then? Give it a shot?" she asked with a trembling voice.

He raised his eyes back at her and his jaw hardened when he meanly replied with an hurtful intent, "Well, maybe it was a mistake after all!"

And he probably meant it as a bitter joke, but it just hurt her deep inside with the sharp intensity of a stab. And maybe he saw in her eyes the extent of the damage he'd just caused, because he immediately added a response in the shape of an attempted apology.

"Elizabeth, I—"

"So this is your idea of a partnership, isn't it?" she cut him with teary eyes and a low, shaky voice, "You get to make mistakes but I don't? You get to decide of everything and I just have to obey to your orders?"

"It's not—"

"Just tell me something, Rio: would I be entitled to lecture you about any of your business decision the way you just did about mine?" she asked, before she added, muttering, "Will I ever be?"

Rio shook his head with annoyance. She may have had a point about his controlling side, but she was totally ignoring the fact that he was more experienced than her in this lane of work, that he'd seen and done some shit he wished she'd never have to go through, but couldn't guarantee she wouldn't if she kept trying to do things her own way without taking any of his advice into account.

"If your idea of a partnership is all 'bout jeopardizin' my business in the first place, then yeah, I don't think you will," he coldly replied.

All he wanted was to shake her a bit, wake her up, make her realize how foolish she'd been to take such a risky decision without telling him. He didn't care about the decisions she'd make regarding the customers she worked with. He knew she'd do great, trusted her on this, because she was experienced already, and also because it was her share of the business, and if she screwed up, well, it would be her mess to clean. But hiring her former rotten egg, someone with a highly questionable trust track record, to go snitching on the very dude who was doing anything he could to turn them down, _that_ could send both of them away for a while. He'd have appreciated a fucking memo.

"You know Turner still has got some shit on me that could get me arrested any minute, right?" he added, "This game is dangerous, ma, you better not mess things up."

But Beth wasn't listening anymore, "_Your_ business?" she narrowed her eyes, "I thought it was supposed to be our business!"

"It stopped bein' ours the minute you decided to trust your rotten egg before me," he bitterly stated.

"Rio, that's not fair!" she protested, "I didn't... I mean, I did it for us!"

"Oh so there's an us now?" he sarcastically pointed out.

She bit her lips not to cry at his comment, which had been an emotional bullet aiming straight at her heart. She didn't want to show weakness in front of him, not when he was in that angry, scolding state she hated, so she did what she did best in such circumstances. Throwing back poison for poison.

"Obviously there isn't," she hissed, "It's always been only you, you and _your_ fucking business!"

Rio narrowed his eyes, "Excuse me? So now you're the victim here? For endangerin' both of us behind my back?"

She was tired of his constant reproaches and she suddenly exploded, "Fine, I'll admit it, it's risky! But it's not like we have so many better options here. You're not the only one who could be arrested, you know? I _killed_ someone! So she's not my favorite option, but she might actually _save_ both of us, and _I_ believe this is worth the risk. And you're welcome, by the way!"

He looked at her, body rigid and hands buried deep in his pockets, chewing at his bottom lip for a while before he finally let out, "Sorry but I can't afford a _might_. Call me when it's a _will_."

He pivoted to leave, and she yelled at his back, "Well I won't! _You_ call me when you're back into acting like an adult instead of a child!"

God, she hated how crazy he drove her sometimes! She watched him walk away, anger and sadness struggling for the lead in her heart and she sighed. Right now she didn't have time for this. She still had to solve her schedule problem, not to mention that she definitely needed a little talk with Annie. Obviously. Who else could be the second rotten egg Rio had mentioned, who else in her inner circle knew about Mary Pat but didn't trust Beth about her and had the foolish boldness to _talk to Rio_ about it but her? It could wait, though, she had other worries on their way. Like this upcoming big delivery in a few days.

She hadn't lied when she'd told Rio that she was stressed out about it in the hotel room. The guys she was meeting were among the first customers she'd managed to flip on her side when she'd stolen Rio's kingdom. They were efficient at washing cash, and she could tell they were the ambitious kind, willing to carve themselves a name in Detroit criminal jungle, fast. Hence when they'd asked for an increase in the amount of cash, she'd hesitated at first, but she didn't really have a choice. Rio and her needed to upscale their activities since the incomes barely covered their costs right now. She suspected Rio had already plans up his sleeve about that, but a little more cash in the meantime would be welcome.

And she trusted them, well, mostly because trying to mess up with her would have been the stupidest thing to do, and they knew it. Although Rio had had to start over a huge part of his business, he was still the king of Detroit, and that was common knowledge among local gangs. But it was still a huge amount of money to carry with her, and, well, it sounded stupid because, what difference did it make after all, but it got her nervous. She was still a little bit shaky when she parked her car two streets away from the meeting place. Despite their argument about Mary Pat a few days before, Rio had sent over three boys from his crew, and that was at least actually helping her to steady her mood a little.

The meeting was happening in an old abandoned warehouse in the middle of an industrial wasteland. The place was spooky but Beth didn't care. She just wanted this to be over, trade the fake cash for real money, and get back home a little wealthier than when she'd left. She exchanged a brief greeting nod with the leader of her customers gang, recognizing group behavior patterns among them that reminded her of the time she worked for Rio with the girls, and basically lead their little amateur gang. Were things really different now that she was on the other side of the meet?

That was actually the last question that crossed her mind before it happened. The duffel bags were already on the table, and she barely had time to understand what was going on when the door blasted and the whole place turned into a mess of gunshots, sirens, flashing lights and orders barked in megaphones.

Beth's brain stopped thinking and her instinct took control of her body as she jumped aside to hide behind a pile of crates in a corner. She saw herself reaching for the gun she had in her purse — she didn't like the idea of casually carrying a gun with her, but Rio had made it very clear that it wasn't an option whenever she was on a business meeting — and her hands mechanically repeated the moves she had practiced hundreds of times under Rio's watch. Load it. Cock it. Point it down with a slight angle from the body, you don't want to inadvertently shoot your own foot. She hoped she wouldn't have to use it, but if she got cornered, well...

She cast panicked glances all around her, looking for an obvious exit. Escape was her favorite option, but she couldn't find an easy way out, until a stray bullet shattered the large window right above her. She unarmed her gun and immediately took that chance at escalating its low sill when she felt a strong arm grabbing her waist. She turned her face and for a brief instant, she locked eyes with the FBI agent all dressed up in bulletproof clothes who was trying to hold her back. She struggled, fighting against his grip until she hit the back of his head with the butt of her gun, letting out a wild scream. The pressure on her body suddenly vanished as the man stepped back, wobbling, and she disappeared outside.

Based on the number of police cars around, maybe the inside of the warehouse was safer, all things considered. Nobody had spotted her yet, but she wouldn't have any chance at making her way out of here right now. She noticed the end of some kind of rusty fire escape hanging above her head against the warehouse wall and it took her all her strength to grab it and climb up on the roof. She had no idea of how her body had managed to perform this, she'd never been good at sports in high-school, and, well, high-school was probably the last place she'd actually worked out at, so...

She curled up against a low wall in a corner of the roof, trying to breathe the terror out, the gun still in her hand as she was waiting for her fate. If someone thought about checking the roof, she would be over. There was no escape from there. She was shaking in fear, and cold, and retrospective shock, when she suddenly noticed that her left sleeve was soaking wet. With blood. And there was a huge glass splinter jabbed in her forearm. She almost fainted at the sight, before she noticed that her whole arm was bristled with glass shards. When the window had been smashed, she'd been on the receiving end of a deluge of glass fragments, but she hadn't even felt it in the spur of the moment. But now that she was gradually calming down, the pain was increasingly imposing to her conscience, until she winced with a hoarse moan.

She internally debated the idea of removing the biggest splinter from her forearm. On one hand, she knew that sometimes it was better to let a foreign object inside of a wound, in case it had cut an artery, otherwise she might bleed to death once she'd have removed it. On the other hand, the only sight of it stuck in her forearm like some extremely realistic zombie Halloween costume was enough to give her nausea and dizziness, and fainting up that roof would definitely sign her death warrant. Or at least her jail one. She tried to assess the probability for the glass shard to have cut open an important vein, but her anatomic knowledge in that field was pretty shitty so she just decided herself for the removal. She could always tie a tourniquet above her elbow if things turned wild. 

She almost laughed at the thought that not so long ago her biggest concerns in life would have been about finding alternative recipes for dairy-free cupcake, and now she was questioning her ability to stop a hemorrhage on herself. She could almost hear Annie's voice in her head, "When did you go from Martha Stewart to Rambo?" and she nervously giggled before she remembered that she was mad at Annie right now. And she was also trying to delay the unavoidable with this internal digression. So. She briefly closed her eyes and took a few deep breathes, gathering all her courage.

She clasped her fingers around the glass and mentally countdowned before biting her tongue as strong as she could, but it wasn't enough to muffle the throaty scream of pain she let out when she extracted the glass from her wound. She dropped the piece of window at her feet and let herself lean against the low wall, her chest throbbing with sobs and her face covered with a mix of blood, sweat and tears. She breathed deeply before she looked down on her forearm. Well. At least, there weren't pulsing spurts of blood gushing out from the cut, so she would probably survive the next twenty minutes. But new worries were yet to come as she heard the distant but unmistakable sound of helicopters coming over.

Things seemed to be quieter down on the battlefield, but the feds were probably looking for fugitives, and she wouldn't be able to escape the helicopters searchlights. She needed to get out of here. Fast. With a wince of pain she pulled her burner out of her pocket and she dialed the number she'd known by heart for a while now.

"I need your help," she said.

Then she texted the details and she had to wait another fifteen minutes until the burned buzzed. The car was there, now all she needed to do was escape from that roof without being noticed. More than half of the cops were already gone with all the boys they had arrested, but some of them were still here, probably watching the immediate surroundings. She slowly began to climb down the fire escape, careful not to make any noise. The pain in her arm was getting sharper and she had to bite her tongue not to let out aching moans from gripping the rusty metal bars. There was no one in sight on this side of the building, but she kept her gun armed though, just in case of an emergency. She didn't want to have to shoot anyone, but neither could she get arrested, right? She silently sneaked in the darkness of a narrow alley, hugging the walls and holding her breath. Her heart was beating so hard against her ribcage that she was almost certain that the whole neighborhood could hear it though.

But after what seemed to be an eternity, she finally reached for the black car waiting for her two blocks away, and she sneaked into the passenger seat with a hiss of pain. The engine started immediately, and Beth crumbled in her seat, releasing all the tension from her body.

"Thank you," she whispered, looking straight in front of her.

"Ya're welcome," Demon's grunting voice answered.

She sighed in relief. She didn't know what would have happened if he hadn't been able to come.

"Can you take me to somewhere safe?" she asked in a tiny voice.

"It's late. Is my place okay for ya?"

She mostly didn't care, she just wanted to hide somewhere away from everything and everyone. She needed to sleep, she needed to heal, and she needed to think. There were things she had to process right now.

"Sure. Whatever."

They weren't talking and maybe this was the reason why Demon eventually turned the radio on and kept switching stations until he found one that seemed to suit him. Beth wouldn't have guessed his musical tastes were so picky since he had turned down almost every kind of music until he landed on some vintage Presley-ish rockabilly. Beth's eyes widened in the dark. She'd never have thought that Demon would be likely to listen to that kind of music, although she had to admit she'd never actually wondered about his musical taste. But if she'd had to give it a guess, she'd have probably hesitated between punk rock or gangsta rap. However, it wasn't enough of a juicy detail to distract her from her anxious thoughts for good, and soon she got back to her internal dark loop of questioning and doubts.

The ride didn't last for long after that, though, before Demon pulled over in a small street midtown and gently guided her to an old building. The neighborhood seemed quite unprivileged, and the building entrance could have been described as shabby, but Demon's apartment was very clean. Freakishly clean, to be honest, and she wondered if being a neat freak was required to join Rio's gang. No, stop that, better not think about Rio right now. The flat was a little bit smaller than Annie's and consisted of one bedroom and a small living room with the kitchen on one side. From what Beth could see, it was obvious that Demon lived alone, and she wondered about his hobbies and what he'd do with his free time. There was a violin in a corner of the room but she didn't dare to ask if he played it. Everything in this apartment was so different from the way she thought she knew Demon that she felt intimidated, as if she were discovering something intimate about him and realized she didn't know him at all. Which might also be one of the skills required to join the gang, she internally admitted with a wince.

"Can I stay here for the night?" she timidly asked, "I mean, I'll sleep on the couch," she precipitately added, blushing.

She didn't want Demon to think that she was somehow hitting on him although he'd never had shown any sign of romantic interest about her so far. Maybe he was gay, she thought, amused at the idea that she apparently didn't know him at all. Or maybe the fact that she was sleeping with his kind of scary boss was strongly deterrent no matter what. And why was she even discussing that? She could literally feel her mind wandering around, hanging on any insignificant thought to avoid facing the black hole that had been sucking all her certitudes for the past hour.

"C'mon Beth, don't be stupid. I'll take the couch," Demon gently told her, awakening her from her spinning thoughts about his love life, "But first, we need to take care o' this," he added, pointing a finger at her arm dripping with blood.

She realized that she'd left blood droplets on the floor and she suddenly got under the impression that every impeccable surface in the apartment was accusingly staring at her.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry, I'll clean up!" she stammered but Demon wasn't listening anymore since he'd disappeared in the bathroom.

He came back with tweezers, needles, a bowl of hot water, clean hand towels, and a first aid kit. He wordlessly helped her removing her jacket, and she couldn't repress her cries of pain when she had to extract her wounded arm from the tight sleeve. Glass shards had nailed the fabric to her skin in some places though, so Demon eventually had to remove them first before he could finally release her for good. The deepest cuts were located on her forearm, but there were little shards of glass stuck in her skin from her wrist to her shoulder, and also in her neck and scalp. Demon silently made her sit down before he started to clean the blood, remove the splinters and disinfect the whole thing. Beth didn't let out a sound during the whole operation, but there were tears of pain rolling down her cheeks.

"You tough," he commented when he briefly glanced at her face, " What happened exactly?" he then asked.

She told him about the meeting, the unexpected FBI operation and how she'd hidden on the roof. He gave her an impressed look.

"Ya know, you changed a lot since that day I put a gun to your head. Ya hardened. It's good."

She pursed her lips and didn't answer, quite not sure about if this was indeed a good thing. Demon was almost finished cleaning her up when he suddenly spoke again.

"Why did ya call me instead of Rio?"

She took a deep breath, knowing that she had to face it at some point.

"He was the only one who knew about this delivery," she blankly said in a breath.

She'd been thinking and re-thinking the whole thing while she was hiding on the roof. She hadn't told anybody else about this meeting. She'd hidden her schedules and checked the hotel room where she'd spoken to Rio. His boys had received the details at the last minute but this police operation had obviously been prepared with anticipation. They knew what and who they were looking for. Which only let her with one possible explanation. A breath-taking one that a part of her refused to believe.

Rio could never have betrayed her like that. Unless it had all been a lie from the start, unless she'd been right to suspect he'd been working with Turner and Harry all along. He'd tried so hard to convince her that she could trust him, but could she really? Could she ever stop doubting he was fooling her from the start, even when it didn't make any sense? And maybe she had troubles at trusting someone, anyone, since the day she'd realized Dean had kept her in the dark for years, and maybe she was still haunted by this anxiety of being completely fooled, but although she knew that Rio was nothing like Dean, there were some really disturbing things about him too.

And it wasn't like they hadn't fought a few days before, wasn't like he hadn't left her unsure of whether they were still working together or not. What if he'd decided to cut her off before anything happened because of Mary-Pat? What if he had decided to punish her for it, in that same insane and twisted way he had once qualified kidnapping her and forcing her to kill an FBI agent as _'helping'?_

She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice at first the way Demon was staring at her with dismay.

"What?" she asked.

Demon shook his head, "He wouldna done that."

"How can you be so sure?" Beth asked in disbelief.

Demon looked away, thoughtful, before he came back at her, "The way he looks at ya? Talks 'bout ya? Never seen him bein' like this with anyone. Except maybe for..." Demon stopped talking, realizing he'd probably stepped too far in Rio's privacy, but his words kept hanging in the air, and although Beth didn't know her name, she just knew what Demon had been about to say.

_Except for his ex-wife._

"Well, maybe that was before he accused me of sabotaging his business," she replied with a broken voice.

"Oh. Well, then, I dunno," Demon unsurely said with an embarrassed look telling her that he didn't want to know the details of her personal relationship with Rio.

He gave her another side glance, and this time, the tears that were uninterruptedly rolling down her cheeks weren't due to physical pain.

"You should get some sleep," he said with a gentle pat in her back, and she silently nodded, "And ya lost some blood, so take a couple of snacks and stay hydrated, yeah?" he added.

"Thank you," she whispered, closing her eyes as she tried to pull herself together.

Demon disappeared for a few minutes before he came back and guided her to the bedroom.

"Put some new sheets on the bed," he grunted as an explanation for his short absence and she felt guilty for imposing herself in his home like this.

"That's so sweet, but you really didn't have to!" she protested.

Demon clicked his tongue, "My moma, she always told me to treat my guests better than myself. 'Specially the ladies."

Beth raised her eyebrows in astonishment, "Your mother is a really wise soul, but seriously, I don't want to be a burden to you."

Demon shrugged as he went to the door, exiting to give her some privacy, "Sleep tight, okay?"

She nodded and didn't even bother to remove her clothes as she lied down on the bed. She was so exhausted that despite all her anxiety, despite the stress induced from everything that had happened during that day, she instantly fell asleep.

"Is that all?" Turner asked, with a disappointed pout, peering through the one-way glass.

The half-dozen of minor thugs standing in the custody room would have represented a great catch to any other cop, but these were all males, which meant that he'd missed his shot. Again.

"You _saw_ her at least?" he asked his op crew.

A blonde officer whose name he'd already forgotten vigorously nodded, "Oh yeah, I almost got her at some point but she escaped!"

Vic. That was the guy's name, Turner suddenly remembered, "Well, _Vic_," he icily retorted, "Can you tell me what made you _almost_ catch a woman half your muscle mass?"

Vic's face decomposed under the acid comment and he instantly lost the bragging expression his face was carrying one second before.

"She hit me," he muttered under his breath to the cruel amusement of his intervention mates.

Turner pursed his lips. At least the tip had been accurate and she'd indeed been there. But it was of no use now. He didn't have credit enough to send forensic there and gather biological evidences of her presence. Sending helicopters had already been a harsh negotiation. Plus it wouldn't be enough. Since the Boomer fiasco, he'd been walking on thin ice with his hierarchy, who had made it pretty clear that he'd better make a big breakthrough in this twisted case, otherwise his career would head straight to a bureaucratic closet. Hence arresting her for a few counterfeit bills wasn't worth it. He had a murder, if not two, ready to put on her, but it seemed that he was cursed at finding convincing evidences. Harry's murder crime scene hadn't brought up anything interesting so far. He'd have to pressure his insiders a bit more then, break her down from the inside.

Speaking of the inside, he suddenly thought... Some faces in that custody room looked familiar.

"I've got to check on something," he suddenly excused himself out.

He frantically browsed through old files on his desk until he found the pictures he was looking for, taken during a stakeout of one of Rio's meetings, back in the days when he was his only target. There was no possible doubt about these two sidekicks boys who stood by his side. So Beth Boland — he had troubles at calling her Marks since her divorce — and Rio were still working together. He'd suspected it, of course, but the two of them sharing meeting goons made it irrefutable.

And suddenly he knew where to aim at and hit. It had worked before. As soon as one of them felt like the other was playing both sides they would happily betray each other. He slowly walked back towards the custody area.

"Hey, Vic!" he called, "Good work bro, but these guys are too much of small fishes to be of any use right now. Tell Bosco to let them go, will you?"

He saw Vic raise his eyebrows in surprise but the latter was still too mortified from failing at arresting Beth Boland to dare to contradict him and he simply nodded.

It took Beth a few minutes to gather herself and remember where she was and why she was there when she woke up on the next morning. Despite Demon's good care, her arm was incredibly aching and she could feel her pulse running along all the cuts in her skin. She heard Demon moving stuff in the kitchen and she went out of the room to meet him.

"Hi," she lowly said, muffling a yawn.

"Mornin'," Demon grunted.

"You mind if I take a shower?" she asked.

"Please."

Demon had never been a really chatty person, and for once that was something she appreciated. She wasn't in the mood for small talk. She mumbled in appreciation before she disappeared in the small bathroom.

The shower didn't really improved her mood like it usually did, and having to put on the same clothes as the day before didn't make it better. When she exited the bathroom, she found Demon devouring a bowl of cereals, and she suddenly remembered the first morning she'd found him at her place, cooking himself pancakes while he was supposed to watch her when she worked for Rio, a murder threat hanging above her head. Had anything evolved since then?

She cleared her throat, "What are you up to, today?"

He handed her a mug of coffee that she gratefully took before he grunted, "Work. Why you care?"

"Are you going to see him?" she asked, finding herself almost unable to pronounce Rio's name.

"Huh," Demon nodded.

"Could you take me with you? I need to talk to him," she asked in a breath, before putting on her most convincing smile, "Besides, I left my car when I escaped yesterday, so I could really use a ride."

Demon shrugged, "Be ready in five, then," he simply said.

They didn't talk much in the car and Beth's nervousness gradually increased during the ride. She didn't know what she would say to him. She didn't want to find out that he had betrayed her, but what if he had? And what if he hadn't? And oh God, what about the money? Did she just lost her biggest income of the month in this? Along with one of her most efficient and trustworthy customer?

She was slightly shaking when Demon pulled over, but she just nodded to his croaking "Ya okay?" and silently followed him into the warehouse that was apparently one of Rio's new headquarters. It suddenly annoyed her to realize that she knew so little about what he did, even when they were supposed to be partners. Ever since he'd told her that they should work separately, it felt like she didn't know him nor his business anymore. She followed Demon as he was walking through the warehouse and gruntingly greeting people who could have been qualified as his co-workers, although that sounded like a weird thing to say in that field, when she suddenly narrowed her eyes.

"That guy over there... Isn't that Alf?" she asked Demon, tilting her head towards her right.

"Yeah, why? Ya know him?" Demon frowned, and Beth's world collapsed for the second time in less than twelve hours.

Alf was one of the three boys Rio had sent over. She'd _seen_ him handcuffed and arrested just the night before. And yet there he was, apparently free as a bird, as if nothing wrong had happened. There was no place left for doubt, now. Rio couldn't have bailed his boys out so fast, not without calling her to get explanations of what had happened. This could only mean one thing. He had a deal with the FBI.

A big lump formed in her throat when Demon eventually brought her to the back of the warehouse and she peered at Rio's tall silhouette, apparently talking to one of his boys. Demon cleared his throat and Rio turned his head towards them.

"Elizabeth! What are you doin' here?" he asked, surprise printed all over his face.

"Well, maybe that's for you to tell!" she acidly attacked, and she saw Demon roll his eyes in annoyance in the extent of her vision before he left them to their beginning argument with a puff of exasperation, "Is that your idea of a partnership? Blowing me away to protect your business?" she insisted.

"What?" Rio replied, cocking an eyebrow as he was obviously unexpecting her outburst of aggressiveness.

She sighed, "Are you seriously going to pretend that you don't know what happened last night?"

He swallowed, "I know shit happened, but— What happened to your arm?" he suddenly asked with a worried look at her bandages.

His boys had told him the weirdest shit in the early morning. He'd been meaning to call her later for further explanation, but then he'd been caught into business stuff and he'd thought she could wait. But maybe that had been a mistake, maybe calling her should have been his first move as soon as he'd learned about the boys arrested and then inexplicably set free just a few hours later, judging from how mad at him she seemed to be right now. And apparently she'd been wounded too. He'd left her dealing alone with some shit. Again. Just like the time she'd been molested by Harry's boys while he was on vacation. He hadn't been there when she'd needed him and that idea made him sick, raising protective instincts inside of him despite the fact that he was still mad at her for what she'd done with Mary-Pat.

Beth wanted to cry. She didn't know what to think. She'd seen these boys being arrested, and seeing them free less than twelve hours later could only mean one thing, but it didn't sound like Rio to play innocent and surprised about this. He was more the kind to be an asshole all the way when he started acting like one, proudly demonstrating his unbridled dickishness.

"Why are your boys already out?" she asked, incapable of thinking straight.

She needed answers. Desperately.

He frowned, unable to get her point, "Whatchu mean?"

"Are you working with the FBI? Is that some sort of game to you? Did you punish me because of Mary-Pat?"

His eyebrows furrowed even more, but she could tell that incredulity was making room for anger now as he snapped this time, "What the fuck, Elizabeth?"

She sighed in annoyance, "You were the only one who knew about this delivery, and as if by chance, something went wrong. And then your boys got arrested but I find them here this morning, as if nothing had happened? You better have a good explanation for all this!"

This time he almost looked amused, and it just infuriated her more.

"Right... Why would I do summin' like that?" he asked, sucking in his bottom lip, openly mocking her theory.

"I don't know! And maybe that's the problem with you, I never know what you're thinking!" she exclaimed, already on the verge of tears.

He considered her with contempt. This was ridiculous. First she screwed up and did shit behind his back, finding a way to sound like the victim, and now she was accusing him of throwing her in the lion's den which was... crazy. And hurtful. Who the fuck did she think he was to imagine that he could do that to her? And okay, they _had_ done stuff like this in the past to each other, but things were different right now, even after their lil' fight, how could she not _see_ that?

"Hey, why should it be me?" he protested, "Why don't you ask your rotten egg 'bout last night, instead?"

"It wasn't Mary-Pat!" she immediately threw back.

"And why is that? Please, enlighten me!" he snorted.

"Because I watch her closely whenever she enters my house! There's no way she's been able to steal anything about my schedules. I would have noticed," Beth stiffened.

Rio looked away, thoughtful, before his eyes came back at hers, and she startled at how cold his gaze was.

"Al'ight, you know what your problem is, Elizabeth? It doesn't matter who dunnit. I don't fuckin' care. What matters is that you _always_ put it on me first. Just like you did when this shit with Harry and the tape came out. This ain't what partners do."

He slightly shook his head in endorsement of his statement and she suddenly had to lean against the wall not to crumble.

"Please don't dismiss me!" she begged in a hiss.

"Oh you don't need me for that, you're doin' great at dismissin' yourself, darlin'! " he joylessly scoffed, "You know there is always an out if you really want to, right?"

Her eyes widened. She already knew so much about the business that she didn't see how she could ever get out of this alive.

"What kind of out, Rio? The one that ends with a barrel?"

And she didn't mean it, not really. She didn't believe that he could do this to her, he had already tried after all, but she wanted to provoke him, trigger something from him that would shut up her spinning wheel of doubts. She needed him to unquestionably demonstrate to her that he wasn't who she thought he was, that he cared for real, that there was a logical explanation for all of this and that it was nothing but a fucked-up misunderstanding. But his jaw hardened and a mask of sadness printed on his face instead.

"You still don't get it, do you?" he hissed between his teeth.

"Get what?" she snapped, internally cursing his taste for speaking in enigmas and implicit meanings.

He sighed, "Never mind."

Was she _that_ blind? Didn't she see that he could never hurt her, even if he'd wanted to? That she was his ultimate weakness, his poison, his rotten egg that he couldn't do anything about except try to turn it into his strength by asking her to be his partner? That he sometimes wished he'd never met her almost as much as he blessed every minute of having her in his life? He winced. He should have known better. He'd tried so hard not to fall for her, before he'd finally given in, convincing himself that things could be different this time. But it had been a mistake. A huge one. And now it hurt so fucking much. He furiously bit his bottom lip, his jaw ticking. Better rip that bandage off, and fast.

"You know what, Elizabeth? Do whatever the fuck you want, I don't give a shit anymore," he shrugged, turning his back at her and walking away.

"Are we still on the same side?" she asked, and he could hear sobs making their ways in her throat as she was speaking.

"What do you think?" he coldly replied without looking at her.

The sharp little cry of pain she let out when she burst into tears in his back broke his heart but he didn't turn back. Shit was over. For good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry... 😢
> 
> (Also, Beth needs to stop jumping to conclusions)


	4. Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I hear the ticking of the clock I'm lying here the room's pitch dark _  
_I wonder where you are tonight no answer on the telephone _  
_And the night goes by so very slow oh I hope that it won't end though _  
_Alone _  
(Song from **Heart** because I can be cheesy)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. I'm going to stop pretending at the beginning of every chapter that the next one will come quicker... 🙈🙈 To be honest I had this one figured out for a reaaaaaally long time, but I struggled so much at writing it, it's unbelievable. I'm hugely relieved to finally be able to post this... Anyway. I hope you like it! ❤️

When she would think about the FBI raid later, Beth would remember it as the starting point of everything around her falling apart within a few weeks, like a freaking wall of dominos. But the problem was that she didn't realize it on time.

After her last argument with Rio she had called an Uber to go home, quite unsure of where they were standing. She'd thought that maybe everything was over, but as it turned out, they were still stuck with each other. This was at least the only explanation Beth could find to explain Demon unexpectedly showing up at her house a few days later.

"Here's ya're schedules," he grunted, handing her a folded sheet of paper, "And ya'll need this key to access the new storage unit. We switchin' place at the end of the week."

"Demon, what does this mean?" she cautiously asked.

"It means that this is your schedule," Demon stubbornly replied, refusing to look her in the eyes, "How's your arm?" he asked, clearly trying to turn the conversation to something else.

"Better. What did he say?" she insisted

This time, Demon gave her an exasperated look, "Listen, I already deliver his mail and it ain't my fuckin' job, so I won't provide subtitles with it. Ya sort your shit and talk to him yourself!"

"Wow!" she backed off, "Bad day?"

Demon shrugged before he glared at her, "Sort ya're fuckin' shit, Beth."

He left before she got a chance to answer, and she leant against the wall, blankly staring at the schedule. So apparently they were still in business together. That was unsettling news. He'd only cut her out of his life then, or so she assumed based on his complete silence in the last few days, not to mention the fact that he apparently didn't even want to directly deal with her to the point of sending Demon. Which was an unpleasant reminder of the last time he'd done that, she noticed with a wince. 

She shook her head, trying to cast away the sadness and the anxiety that she'd been filled with for the past couple of days. She knew she should have called him to apologize, although she still couldn't fathom what exactly had gone off the rail with this delivery. And as long as she wouldn't be sure of what had happened, she knew that this tiny kernel of doubt in her heart would still exist, even if she refused to believe now that Rio had anything to do with it. It didn't match his attitude when she had confronted him. She needed to talk to him, she _had to_, but she was scared. Scared of his reaction, scared that he'd ghost her or whatever. She wouldn't be able to handle it. And an apology wouldn't probably be enough, since he'd made it crystal clear that he wanted her to blindly trust him. And here was the thing, she wasn't sure that she could ever do this. And surely not without talking this through with him. She shrugged with annoyance. If he was planning on keeping acting like an offended child, he could go fuck himself. She'd get over it. She always did.

Rio had soon realized that he couldn't erase Elizabeth from his life that easily. Not that he wanted it, though, but seeing her or talking to her was off the table for the moment. Even thinking about her hurt beyond reasonable. But they had rebuilt the kingdom together, and as a consequence she was so much woven with everything that cutting her out was impossible. Not while they were still struggling at balancing their incomes and finding new business opportunities. The kingdom wasn't solid enough yet to survive without her. And neither was he. So even if not handling his business himself was against every personal rule he had, he delegated Demon to deal with her. He hated it, knew that Demon despised him for that, but he couldn't do better at the moment.

He'd always protected himself so much that he'd never let anyone hurt him so badly, and he didn't know what to do to soothe it, so he did what he was best at in such circumstances. He disappeared. With his kid. Better that than killin' her, right? Fine, not really killing her, cause he was incapable of that, but, yeah, figuratively, he wanted to rip her head off for driving him that much crazy. So. He thought he'd better clear his mind. He had to negotiate hard with Vicky about the kid's homework before he could take Marcus away on a surprise week of vacation. They'd already checked Legoland and Disneyland on the kid's bucket list, so this time they'd go for SeaWorld. Marcus was in his wild animals phase anyway. But for the first time it seemed that the kid wasn't excited with that perspective.

"You ain't happy 'bout goin' to see the dolphins, lil' man?" Rio asked his son once they got on the plane.

"I'm happy, daddy. But I'm also sad," Marcus said, and Rio frowned.

The notion of opposite things didn't seem to be a very well understood concept yet.

"Why you sad, kiddo?"

"Because Amy is changing school next semester. Her parents are moving again," the little boy puffed his cheeks out before he loudly sighed, and Rio gave his son an interrogative look.

"Amy?"

Marcus cast his father a semi-exasperated glance, "My girlfriend? Daddy! I told you about her, remember?"

_Girlfriend?_ Was that a thing among seven years old, now? Weren't they supposed to wait 'til they had at least some fucking puberty hormones rushing through their veins to start saying shit like that?

"Right... Your girlfriend. I remember," he slowly said, feeling like the worst pervert on earth to even associate a word like this to the charming little creature who used to be the cutest baby, like, _yesterday_.

He'd have to ask Elizabeth if her kids were that premature on this field too. Oh wait, no. He didn't want to think about Elizabeth. Not a good idea. Better focus on the kid's feelings.

"Does it always hurt when you really like people and then they go away?" Marcus asked, and Rio's heart clenched, because apart from the lil' man's sorrow, now all he could think about was Elizabeth. Elizabeth. Elizabeth.

"Yeah, it does," he lowly replied.

"Well, that sucks!"

"Hey, watch your language, lil' man!" Rio scolded him, tousling the boy's hair.

The kid nested his head against his father's arm and a surge of love burst in Rio's chest as he pulled the boy closer to him. These father-son moments had always been the ones that made him feel the most happy and complete person in the world, the moments in which he didn't need anything else but the amazing delight of Marcus's company. But guess what, turned out that these moments weren't perfect anymore. Cause, he realized with a pinch in his heart, she wasn't a part of it. Right before their argument, he'd been thinking about officially introducing her to Marcus, and she.. she'd just ruined it. He winced. Stop it. He had a whole week to enjoy being with his kid without thinking about her. That should do the trick. He'd get over it. He always did.

She didn't see Rio for weeks. Demon would show up once in a while to give her heads-up about the business and transmit some instructions that she assumed were coming from Rio, but he obstinately refused to talk about anything but work. To be honest, she was a little bit annoyed with Rio's childish way of letting her know that he was still upset, and at least cursing him distracted her from the utter depression she'd been through since the last time they had talked. She wasn't blaming him for the current state of their relationship, though, if there was still an existing one to begin with. No, this time she knew that she'd spectacularly screwed things up, but come on, he didn't make it easier.

And speaking of chain of responsibility, well, this total mess wasn't completely her fault either. Things wouldn't have been that messy if Rio hadn't heard about Mary-Pat the way he did. At least it meant that there was someone else she could pass her angry nerves on. The girls had been pretty busy lately, Ruby working hard at the bakery business, trying to provide a solid legit cover for the three of them, and Annie, well... Annie had just disappeared in a full romance mode with Patrick and she kept rescheduling nights out with Ruby and Beth. But Beth eventually managed to catch up with her sister, tricking her into tasting a new peanut butter cookies recipe.

"Did you talk to Rio behind my back about Mary-Pat?" Beth asked out of the blue, because although she already knew the answer to this question, recent events had made her learn that starting with frontal accusations wasn't a very efficient strategy.

Annie choked on her cookie and had to swallow a full glass of red wine to recover, "I... might," she admitted with apologetic eyes, "But only because you said that he already knew! I just wanted to ask him why!" she hastily added.

Jeez, Gangfriend had been kinda intense after she'd blurted out about Mary-Pat. He'd given her that scary look, you know, the one that made everyone pee their pants, well maybe except for Beth who probably found it hot. Then he'd growled a threatening, "What did you just say?" that had only scared her for five seconds before she'd remembered that he wouldn't hurt _her_, not if he ever wanted to bang Beth again. But she'd been dreading the moment Beth would find out. That was why she'd spent so much time away, using Patrick as an excuse to avoid her sister's dragon looks. Well, and also because Patrick was, like, super hot, and funny, and...

"Well, next time, don't," Beth coldly retorted, awakening her sister from her daydream, "Why didn't you just trust me when I told you that I handled it?"

Annie narrowed her eyes, pretending to search her memory, "Hum, let me think about it, oh, maybe because you _lied_ about this?"

"That's not the point!" Beth protested.

"Hello, yeah it is! You can't just lie, and manipulate people, and expect them to act like you decided they would, Beth! This isn't 7th grade anymore, and I'm not your puppet," Annie bitterly stated.

Beth was shocked. Was that the way that Annie saw her? A controlling liar who manipulated people? If anything, that was Rio's trademark, not hers. She didn't like the turn of that conversation.

"I thought you even didn't like him!" Beth tried to change her angle.

"Well, I don't like him but I don't _hate_ him either... I mean, the guy's annoying as hell and he scares the shit out of me, but I think that he knows what he does," Annie thoughtfully stated, "How long exactly has he been in that _'lane'_?" she air-quoted.

Beth blindly fell in the trap, "Well, at least twelve years, because Demon told me—"

"Exactly!" Annie ferociously struck back, "While you've been in there for like what, a _year_? And I'm convinced you're nailing it, Beth, I'm not questioning that, but he's just... more experienced than you!"

"That's not fair! I was going to tell him. Now he won't even talk to me!"

"Well, I'm sorry but it's not my fault if you've been lying to his face," Annie retorted, looking for her purse, "And I'm sick of you pretending that you're a crime lord or something while you obviously can't handle basic stuff! But hang on with the PB cookies, they're killers by the way."

"Annie..." Beth started, but her phone buzzed at the same time and she glanced at the screen, "Oh my God!" she anxiously let out.

"What," Annie froze.

"It's Mary Pat. She wants to talk to us. She says it's urgent." 

Rio's holiday were a disaster. Okay, not a disaster _per se_, they got to see the dolphins and orcas, and that was dope, and getting to spend some time with Marcus was precious, but. Once the day would be over and the kid in bed, he would just think about her. Every fucking night. And not in a joyful masturbatory way, he wished he did, but no. He missed her. Missed her voice, her smile, her scent, the way she seemed to illuminate from the inside whenever she laid eyes on him. Okay fine, that last one hadn't really been part of the equation lately, she'd been more all about murderous looks over the last times they'd interacted, but still. He'd been aching for texting her ever since, but that wasn't his fucking move to make.

That painful frustration made him even angrier when he came back. He got fully busy with business, though, that at least distracted him a bit. Gretchen had given him pretty unsettling news about the case, and it seemed like everything was standing on thin ice at the moment. Apparently Turner was turning real crazy, like frenetic or something. Whoever tipped him about Elizabeth's delivery, he must be pretty pissed off to have missed his shot. So Rio had to take some precautions, set a few back-up plans just in case everything got out of control. And well, he was doing quite fine at this, busying himself with work until he almost managed to forget about her once in a while, but fucking Demon had to ruin it, right? Rio knew him too much to not recognize that look on his face when he came to talk to him, about three weeks after he'd flown back from Orlando.

"Can we talk?" Demon asked without even bothering to knock on the door.

"Watchu want?"

"I just delivered _her_ this week's schedule," Demon grunted, and the simple mention of Elizabeth's existence irritated Rio.

"So what?" he snapped, "She got a problem with that or summin'?"

"She's fine but I ain't. That shit ain't my job, so I quit. _Boss_."

Rio looked at him with astonishment, and a beginning of anger. Since when did he need his crew's approval to just have them do as he said?

He licked his lips, "Al'ight, you know what your job really ain't 'bout? Discussin' my orders. Remember when I told you 'bout blowin' your wildcard?"

"Remember when I told you 'bout regrettin' your decisions?" Demon immediately threw back with a defying look.

Rio's eyes narrowed, "What are you sayin' exactly?"

"I'm sayin' that I ain't the fuckin' shared custody kid of the two of you! So ya deal with her and ya sort your own shit 'cause the boys are sick of it. Otherwise I'm out. Fuck her, don't fuck her, I don't give a damn. But now ya're just puttin' everythin' at risk over a pussy and this ain't the boss I used to work for."

There was a silence during which all Rio could hear was Demon's angry breath. He'd only seen him that much upset a couple of times in their twelve years business relationship, and he knew that it wasn't something he could easily dismiss.

"First of all, don't ever talk 'bout her like this again," Rio eventually warned him with threat in his voice.

Elizabeth was so much more than someone he'd slept with that reducing her only to their sexual interactions felt kinda disrespectful. Although on second thought, Demon knew that as well as him, plus he sorta got along with Elizabeth, so that was probably pure triggering provocation from him.

"What's coming second?" Demon asked, the corners of his mouth raising in an almost imperceptible smirk.

"I'll deliver her next schedules myself," Rio surrendered.

He couldn't afford a staff mutiny on top of everything else at the moment. Jeez, minor staff wasn't what it used to be anymore! Fuckin' millenials... Anyway, his crew didn't leave him any choice, he guessed. Plus he... kinda wanted to see her.

The girls met with Mary-Pat on the next evening.

"Hi! It's been a while..." Beth greeted the latter with a passive-aggressive hint of reproach.

"Well, it's not like I'm meeting with him every day," Mary-Pat replied with a crooked smile as she settled in an armchair, "But I'm afraid this whole thing is starting to get out of control." 

"What do you mean?"

"He's getting over excited about this case, and it's... not really pleasant to watch," Mary-Pat explained, cringing.

"Like he's jerking off in front of you or something?" Annie asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"Ew, gross!" Ruby protested.

"Sorry! I had to ask..."

"Please stop!" Beth interrupted, "Tell me what happened," she ordered Mary-Pat.

"He's getting... angry, I guess, and he's pressurizing me. He keeps asking for results and threatening me about Jeff. I need to give him something!"

"About that," Beth started with her cheesiest voice, "Do you know if he has any... other informants?" she carefully asked.

Despite what Beth had told Rio, she knew that she couldn't exclude the possibility that Mary Pat was the one behind her failed delivery, although she had no idea of how to find out. And if she was innocent, then it meant that Turner had other insiders, and she could definitely use a name or two.

"He didn't mention anything about that. But I could just, you know, try to find out."

"That would be a good idea, yeah," Beth approved.

"But I really need to tip him about something, unless you have plans to get rid of him really soon, since, you know, that's your part of the deal!" Mary Pat joylessly chuckled, drawing out an exasperated sigh from Annie.

"What do you need?" Beth asked.

"Well I guess it doesn't have to be too specific as long as it's vaguely accurate... Oh and he's all about this new case about that guy he's convinced you murdered, Henry or something..."

"Harry," Beth automatically corrected before she realized what she'd just said. And what Mary Pat had just said, "I mean, I've heard about it..." she tried to atone for her gaffe.

Annie gave her a panicked glance and Beth shut up, aware that she was only sinking deeper in her own stupidity.

"Yeah, whatever," Mary Pat proceeded, apparently unaware of what had just happened, "But I was thinking, maybe I could come up to Turner with some made up tip about that case that would buy us some time?"

"Well, just give me a few hours to think about something, you know, plausible. How about I call you tomorrow?" Beth nervously offered.

"That would be convenient," Mary Pat agreed with her usual carnivorous smile before she got up from her armchair, "I'll hear about you real soon, then," she added.

The girls heard the front door closing and there was an absolute silence for several seconds before Ruby's deep voice broke it.

"Harry..." she thoughtfully said, with more subtext in her tone than there should have been.

"Wasn't it the name of that guy who..." Annie tried.

Beth slowly nodded, petrified with what was happening right in front of her.

"So he's dead, huh?" Ruby muttered.

"Yep," Beth confirmed in a really low voice.

"So did you..." Annie asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

Beth didn't know what to do. She didn't want to lie anymore to the girls. She'd learned the hard way the consequences of keeping the important stuff for herself. Besides, she badly needed to go back to the time when she could tell Annie and Ruby everything. She was so tired of carefully choosing her words and keeping every work related topic as a secret. She needed to discuss this with the girls, Harry part included. She needed to talk. Besides, the only person she could currently do that with was Rio, and they weren't really talking at the moment, so. But on the other hand, she wasn't sure of the girls' reaction to such shocking news, she wasn't sure that they were ready for this, their moral compass wasn't Rio's, and...

Annie's gasp taught her that she'd been hesitating for too long. Innocent people don't hesitate.

"Oh my God!" Annie exclaimed in a high-pitch voice, her hands covering her mouth.

Beth rolled her eyes at Ruby and retched. Unlike Annie, who looked shocked but not to an alarmingly high level, Ruby's face expressed more contempt and dismay than Beth had ever seen on her. And she'd seen Ruby in really bad situations more than once.

"Please say something," Beth begged her best friend in a hiss.

Ruby blinked a couple of times before she suddenly went back to her feet and looked at Beth with blatant disgust.

"I don’t have anything to say. You know what, Beth? I've known you for twenty-five years, but right now, I don't know who the damn I am looking at!" she paused before she added, "Once upon a time you were a good person. Just try to remember that."

She didn't wait for Beth's answer as she walked away from the living room and exited the house. Beth closed her eyes, pressing her eyelids hard as if it could erase what just had happened, and two tears rolled down her cheeks when the front door slammed. She hadn't expected the girls to congratulate her for what she did, but. That was brutal, and hurtful. Over the two and a half decades of their friendship, she and Ruby had argued, a lot, more than once they had spent weeks without talking to each other for more or less stupid reasons, but this was different. Ruby had never looked at her the way she just did, she had never made it _that_ clear that Beth had crossed an unacceptable moral boundary for her. And Beth had never expected Ruby to approve nor understand what she'd done, but she'd somehow lured herself into the idea that she would accept it, as her friend, just like she accepted the idea of Beth becoming Rio's partner, despite her obvious disapproval of it.

"For what it's worth, I think it's kinda cool," Annie timidly said after a few silent minutes only punctuated by Beth's muffled sobs, "I mean, not _cool_ like you know, when people say _that's cool, bro!_, obviously killing people is not _cool_, but let's face it, that guy was an asshole anyway, right?"

Beth didn't answer, still sniffling, and Annie came to sit by her sister's side with a sigh.

"Ruby will cool down," she gently promised, holding her tight.

"I don't think so," Beth whispered.

"Shhh... Just give her some time," Annie said, her fingers gently caressing her sister's hair. They stayed still for a while until Annie suddenly asked, "When did it happen?"

"About a month ago," Beth said in a tiny voice.

"Jeez, that's a heavy secret to keep!"

Annie bit her lips in empathy. She'd never killed anyone, of course not, but she could imagine how keeping something that big inside was. Beth should really learn to let stuff go, share her feelings and her own miseries, she mentally sighed. She felt kinda responsible for her sister's habit of carrying all the pain of the world over her fragile shoulders. She'd been Beth's first burden as a kid after all. And then, with Sadie, she'd also relied on her, maybe a lil too much, but what do you know about diapers and formula when you're seventeen, huh?

She tightened her embrace around Beth's shoulders, "Hey let me do something to cheer you up! How about I invite Patrick to come over for lunch on Saturday?" Annie asked.

Beth let out a querulous chuckle, "How's that supposed to cheer me up?"

"Because you love to trash talk my boyfriends!" she replied with a smile, "Plus, it's getting serious between us, and I've been meaning to introduce him to Sadie, but, I'd like your opinion on him first, just to make sure that, you know, I'm making the right decision."

Beth almost forgot her grief in surprise, "Since when are you doing that? You _always_ say you don't need relationship advice from someone who married whatever trash petname for Dean you're currently going with!" she exclaimed with widened eyes.

"No, I'm not!" Annie hypocritically protested, "But obviously my method doesn't work, so I'm just being a responsible adult who's learned from her mistakes."

"Oh please, you're just trying to make it up for talking to Rio behind my back!" Beth lovingly chided her sister.

"Oh yes! There is that too!" Annie pretended to just remember, and they both laughed.

"So what do you say?" Annie insisted.

Beth let out loud sigh, pretending to be exasperated, before she snuggled against Annie, "Fine! Let's do this."

It was actually a good idea, Beth thought on Saturday, as it also gave her the opportunity to spend a whole morning baking cookies and pies for lunch as if she was hosting a twelve-people event. Meeting Patrick was at least a pretty efficient distraction from all her crime-related worries. Annie had seemed a little stressed out over the phone, but as the lunch went on, Beth thought that her sister had been wrong to worry. Patrick was pure delight. He was nice, polite, sweet, and most importantly, he seemed to care a lot about Annie. It was something Beth could read on his face, from the way he gently stroked her sister's hair, looked at her, valued her opinion. And there definitely wasn't even the tiniest shady vibe about that guy.

What Annie and Patrick had, or at least seemed to have, was nothing like what Beth and Rio... _used_ to have? She slightly winced at the thought, and forced herself back into the conversation. Annie was telling some anecdote about Sadie and Patrick was listening to her with a praising look on his face.

"So, Patrick," Beth cleared her throat," Annie told me you haven't met Sadie yet?"

"I haven't indeed," he replied, "But with such an amazing mom, I bet he can only be awesome!"

"Do you have kids of your own?"

"Beth!" Annie hissed with a reproachful and worried look, and Beth suddenly vaguely recalled something about Annie telling her that kids were a sensitive topic with Patrick.

She bit her lip, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"

"No, no, it's okay," Patrick nodded, "I haven't actually. My... ex-wife, she didn't want them. That's one of the reasons our marriage ended, so..."

"Oh. Annie didn't tell me that you got divorced. I'm sorry," Beth apologized.

Patrick negligently waved his hand, as if it was nothing, "I heard that you got divorced too? How is it going for you?" he asked.

Beth opened her mouth but she didn't get a chance to speak.

"Sorry, I hope I ain't interruptin' anythin'?" an ironic voice drawled in her back.

She startled and almost jumped out of her chair in her frenzy to get on her feet and face him. His eyes were dark, and although his sight always made glitter explode inside of her, bearing his gaze was hurtful.

"Just needed a word 'bout your schedule, but I can come back later," Rio added.

"No, no, it's okay," she precipitately said. She turned her face to Annie and Patrick who were staring at the whole scene and she added, "I'm sorry, can you excuse me for a minute? I won't be long, Patrick, this is—"

"Rio!" Patrick cut her with a nice smile, "We met before, remember?" he added towards Rio, "That day when you came to the store to say _Hi_ to Annie..."

Annie had been on the edge since the moment Rio had entered the room. She hadn't told Patrick anything about her or Beth's criminal activities yet, and, well, witnessing Rio having his way in Beth's house like that was not exactly sending the message that they didn't have shady acquaintances. She just hoped that Patrick wouldn't pay too much attention to Rio's tattoos and general scariness, but it instantly got way worse than she'd expected when Patrick cut Beth. Oh no. He _remembered_. Dude, that was like months ago! Come on, guys weren't supposed to have such a detail-oriented memory, they weren't even supposed to remember first dates anniversaries to begin with! She knew she should have stuck to the type of guys who didn't pay attention to the details of her life!

There was an appalled silence after Patrick's intervention, which lasted long enough for the latter to notice that something was wrong.

"Yeah, I seem to recall some _we need to talk or I'll slap you_ shit, right?" Rio eventually slowly said, looking at Annie with an amused smile.

Oh no. She would kill him, he had to be doing this on purpose! And yeah, that was ultimately dickish from him, but honestly, the problem wasn't so much about Rio taunting her, nor Patrick remembering Rio, no, it was more about Beth instantly turning into a dragon and shooting bullets at her with her eyes. Beth's expression was truly terrifying as she rolled her narrowed eyes at Annie.

"Annie. Kitchen. Now," she hissed in a low voice.

"Never mind, I'll come back later," Rio chuckled.

"Yeah, read the signs, dude!" Annie rolled her eyes at him with an exasperated sigh.

Why did Gangfriend have to show up literally at the worst moment? Didn't he have a _phone_ to give notice of his visits? And since when had he and Beth been talking again by the way?

Annie reluctantly followed Beth in the kitchen, suddenly realizing that they'd just left Patrick alone, with or without Rio, but she wasn't sure of which was worse in terms of towering level of awkwardness. Wow. Beth must be really furious to just waive her impressive series of perfect hosting rules like this, she thought.

"I can't believe that you keep doing this behind my back! _Again?_"

"Oh come on, this one doesn't count, it was weeks ago, you and Rio weren't even partners yet!" Annie protested.

"When, Annie, _when_?"

Annie sighed. Beth wouldn't let her get away with this, and that old meeting with Gangfriend was actually more embarrassing than telling him about Mary Pat. And it would definitely hurt Beth to know.

"The day I ran into you two at breakfast," she muttered with low eyes.

"Why?"

"Oh you know, just buddies casual catch-up..." she tried with a tiny voice.

"Annie!"

"Okay, fine! He'd hurt you, you were just recovering from the last time he'd left and I was worried about you. I just wanted to make sure he got the message," she reluctantly admitted.

"What message? Did you threaten him?" Beth asked in disbelief.

"No, just—"

"_What_ did you tell him?" Beth shouted, and suddenly Annie got sick of trying not to hurt her sister.

"I told him that you were in love with him! Happy? You were both acting ridiculous and someone had to do something. And you're _welcome_ by the way!" she meanly shouted back, "But you know what, Beth? I think that from now on, I'll stay out of your relationship issues! In fact..." she added, frantically looking for her coat and purse, "I'm out! Period!"

She stormed out of the kitchen to find the living room empty. She swallowed, furious. She couldn't believe that Beth would make such a gong show on the very day she was supposed to meet with Patrick. Talking about making her look like a fool. That was like the most selfish thing ever.

"Hey I think Ruby was right, the other day. What happened to you, Beth?" she angrily added right before she opened the front door.

That was mean, and intently hurtful, but she was sick of Beth's tendency to control everyone, her inability to trust other people's moves and intentions. So what, did she need an authorization form with Beth's approval stamp to talk to Rio, was he her fucking _property_? _I bet he wouldn't like that!_ she thought, but this time she was done telling him stuff. Let those weirdos sort their shit out, she didn't want to hear about it anymore.

Patrick was waiting for her outside of the house and she felt the urge to cling to his neck for that.

"Thanks for waiting... Oh God, Patrick, I'm so sorry!"

"It's fine, Annie. Do you want me to drive you home?"

She smiled, "Look who's being a gentleman! Yeah, that would be nice."

He kissed her and they both headed to his car.

"Are you okay?" he gently asked once they'd left.

"I'm not... really sure," Annie hesitantly replied, "I thought I was doing the right thing for Beth, you know, but apparently I wasn’t, so... The thing with Beth, it's just, like, veeeery complicated and I can't... I can't really tell you all about it. I'm sorry. Is that okay? Tell me that's okay, Patrick!" she added with pleading eyes.

He gave her a loving smile, "It's okay, honey, family stuff can be really fucked-up, I sure know about that! You can tell me when you feel ready. As long as you don't smuggle drugs or something!" he laughed.

"Yeah, we'll see about that later..." Annie dully said with a worried wince.

Beth watched Patrick's car leave her alley with a growing feeling of foolishness. Annie's betrayal had left her speechless. Of course she understood that her sister's actions were only driven by good intentions, but she couldn't bear the idea that Rio had known something about her before she was ready to tell him. She felt humiliated. Played with. It felt like finding out that Santa didn't exist, that what she'd thought had been a pure and beautiful, although kind of messed up moment was in reality a foregone conclusion. And oh please, she mentally snorted, what gave her sister the right to talk about _love_ when Beth didn't know herself how she felt at the time? What if Annie had kept her mouth shut? Would things have happened differently between her and Rio? That was a... terrifying perspective. Both answers to that question were equally scary, actually. Her mind endlessly looped for a while until a voice behind her brought her back to reality.

"Can we talk now or you still hostin'?" he asked with an irony that seemed designed to annoy her.

She wanted to ask him about Annie, but she wasn't sure that she could handle the answer, not in a moment when they both were... well, wherever they were.

"Where have you been these past few weeks?" she counter-attacked.

He shrugged, "Ain't none of your business, yeah? Here's your schedule."

Beth was already fulminating. She hated that he'd left her with their unfinished argument, hated how he'd disappeared for weeks, hated that he wouldn't tell her anything.

"What happened to Demon?" she tried again.

"Again, none of your business, sweetheart."

And there was so much mean irony in that _'sweetheart'_, just like in their earliest days, that it infuriated her even more, as if nothing had ever happened in between, as if she hadn't killed a man, agreed to be his partner or told him she loved him, even if this last one carried a sour taste now that she'd learn that it hadn't been fresh news for him. As if they were nothing but strangers who barely knew each other. As if she was just _work_.

"So that's it?" she bitterly said.

He shrugged, "That's it."

He looked away and made his way through the living room towards the backyard door. Her eyes fluttered. Maybe if she hadn't slammed that car door the last time he'd said that, maybe things would have gone differently. Maybe she wouldn't have shot him. Maybe they wouldn't have been through the insane pile of hurtful things they had done to each other only to realize that they had loving feelings for each other. And even if they were obviously and objectively shitty at handling something even remotely similar to a relationship, maybe trying to not reproduce their past mistakes was already a good start. And this whole thing had a bitter taste of déjà vu.

"Rio, wait!" she almost screamed, desperate to change their fateful pattern.

"What?"

Despite his cold, all walls up attitude, he had turned around immediately, and even if his voice was carrying a detached, indifferent irony, his eyes were intensely searching her face.

She deeply inhaled, forcing herself into speaking, "Okay, I... I may have... some trust issues."

"Oh you think?" he ironically snorted.

She sighed. Nobody had ever said it would be easy, and if anything Rio was definitely on the challenging side. But she wouldn't let go. Not without at least another trial. 

"Listen, I've spent twenty years with someone who's lied to my face every single day. And guess what, you're not exactly of the most un-deceptive kind either!"

He swallowed.

"So?" he coldly replied.

"So I'm trying," she managed to let out, already blinking with upcoming tears.

"Okay."

It felt like she couldn't reach him, wherever he was. And he couldn't possibly ignore how hard it had been for her to simply admit her flaws and failures. Wow. She must have hurt him pretty bad for him to keep his guard up after that. That realization hit her like a panicked bird flying its way out of a room, with a vertiginous dizziness. Unconsciously, she'd always more or less assumed that nothing she might do could really hurt him. But it turned out that it wasn't true, and that power she had over him scared her. She looked at him with this new acknowledgement in mind, but she only met his cold and slightly annoyed gaze. And his refusal to open up even the slightest bit after she'd tried to make amends was utterly exasperating. She was already anxious after Ruby and Annie had walked away, and Rio's rejection on top of that was just too much. She completely lost it.

"I hate when you build up walls in front of me like I'm nothing to you. I hate it!" she yelled, shoving him with her both hands on his chest as an expression of her frustration, trying to get a response from him, any response.

He caught her wrists in his hands with a hard grip, tugging her closer until her breasts were pressed against him. Panting, she looked up at him with teary eyes, stared at every detail of the cold expression on his face. His eyes suddenly went down on her mouth and he slowly licked his lips. She could feel his heart furiously beating against his ribcage and his breath on her face, and the idea that maybe she'd lost him for good suddenly became unbearable. There was only one thing left that could prevent her from desperately crying.

She lowered her gaze and tiptoed to kiss him with complete abandon, and Rio's reaction was instantaneous. He let her wrists go to entangle one of his hands in her hair, firmly pressing her mouth against his, while his other hand roamed her back and squeezed her ass, pulling her closer. The kiss was harsh, angry, and he bit her bottom lip hard, until she tried to pull away with a moan of pain. He didn't let her go but his lips softened and she clung to his neck in response. She pushed him backward, step by step, until the back of his knees met the couch and she shoved him, sitting him down, before she climbed on his lap, parting her knees on both sides of his waist. His hands immediately landed on her thighs, sliding upward under her skirt until they pressed bruises in her ass cheeks and she moaned, her lips still on his. 

She messily unbuckled his belt, unzipping his pants and pulling him out with a few strokes, drawing a low groan out of his throat. His mouth slid in her neck, sucking at the thin skin and leaving sharp bites that made her whine in a disturbing mix of pain and pleasure. Beth was in a frantic trance of anger and love mixed altogether, and the only thing she knew was that she wanted him. She _needed_ him. She needed to conjure the fury of their arguments, the frustration of his silence and the guilt of her cowardice. She pushed her own panties aside and just impaled herself on him without any further preparation, and they both gasped. They stayed still for a couple of seconds, their bodies welcoming each other back, before he hardened his grip on her hips, setting a fast bouncing pace and mercilessly sucking and biting her upper chest. She grabbed his shoulders and leant against him, her nails sinking deep into his skin, losing her mind at his furious thrusts inside of her.

"Oh God, Rio!" she moaned as a raw, animal pleasure was starting to build inside of her.

"Elizabeth!" he groaned in response, his mouth against her breast.

She cupped the back of his head with her both hands, pulling him impossibly closer, almost suffocating him in her cleavage and he wrapped his arms around her back, responding to her need for proximity. His thrusts were becoming erratic and his grip on her hips had already lost its firmness when he straightened his head, catching her lips with his and slipping his tongue in her mouth. She understood that he was close, that he was trying to trigger her orgasm before he'd let everything go. She was indeed close, but maybe not as much as him, and she whined in frustration under his lips. There wasn't enough space between their bodies for either of them to risk a hand and try to touch her clit so she just rocked her hips faster against him, riding him harder, ignoring the warning twitches of his fingers in her flesh, until she felt him going rigid, and she watched him come. She listened to his low groan and drowned herself in his hazed eyes, and that was enough to bring her the extra drop of arousal she needed to ride down the slope of her own pleasure.

They stayed still for a while afterwards, breathing each other in, until reality caught up with them. She remembered where they stood at the moment, or more precisely where they _didn't_, and when she met his gaze, still cold and unforgiving, she pulled away from his lap with a painful tightness in her chest. She turned her back on him and walked a few steps away, pulling her skirt down while she heard the odd sound of pants being zipped back. Her teardrops silently fell on the floor. She wanted to ask him to stay, but she knew that he wouldn't, and it was... hard. She heard him get back on his feet and for one short second she felt his presence in her back, so close, his hand gently squeezing her shoulder in a mute apology before he was gone.

Ruby, Annie, Rio. One by one, she had managed to lose them all. She was alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Beth. Why am I doing all of this to her? 😭😭 But relax. Story's not over...


	5. 24 Hours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _If I drown, infused with wonder _  
_Would you save me like you say? _  
_I will roll the dice today _  
_And it's all because of you _  
(song from **Gin Wigmore**)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where Beth is more or less having the worst day ever... Have I ever told you that I live for parallels and mirroring situations? 😂

There was still one person Beth hadn't lost though. And on second thought, she wasn't sure that anything else but death could indeed do them part, despite the dissolution of their marriage. In other words, Dean was still around, and although even a few weeks before she'd have mentally ugh-ed at this prospect, she found herself kind of glad that he was here. She was aware that he was fooling her, though, subtly shaming her into not being a good mother enough, insisting on spending more time together _'as a family'_, while he was hiding his real, personal motives and his belief that the two of them hanging out would bring back the sparkle. She knew it wouldn't. Obviously. But still, she gave in, accepted that they hang out more often, but mostly for the kids, and also because of... something else. Although she'd never get back together with Dean, she'd started to think that maybe he was right after all. Maybe she didn't belong to that shady criminal life, maybe her place was where it had always been. At this point of her thoughts, what remained of her facetious mind would generally add an ironic _'In the kitchen'_ which would make her internally giggle about how Dean's patriarchal tropes had managed to infuse her brain.

But the question remained. What if all of this had only been a phase? What if she'd never had what it took for this, but lured herself into it, for the sake of lust and thrill? What if all the things that she'd done, she'd only performed to see a very special someone's eyes glow with pride? What if she'd gone as far as killing somebody only because she'd fallen in love? And deep down she knew that there _was_ something else, that the aliveness and power she felt whenever she was working was totally real and different from her feelings for... well, _him_, but that was the thing. It was all interlaced. She didn't want to be a part of this world if Rio wasn't a part of her life. Took all the fun away. And she hadn't heard from him since their angry fucking session, he'd apparently found a way to safely deliver his instructions through the mail, keeping her burner desperately silent. And it hurt. She couldn't take this on-and-off relationship anymore, but who could tell that Rio wouldn't disappear again at every argument they would have in the future? That she wouldn't freak out at the smallest uncertainty? _Could_ they have a future together?

She didn't want to have to answer that, so she gave in to Dean's chaste courtship attempts, mostly because she didn't know what else to do. The girls were still on some kind of friendship break with her at the moment, and Beth was too proud to be the first one to make amends, despite the hurt. Not to mention how things had gone with Rio when she'd forced herself into some apologies and explanations. She didn't want to go through this again with Annie or Ruby. And, well. It wasn't that bad either, getting to spend some times with her kids, and the most conciliatory version of Dean she'd ever seen. Plus on a less optimistic note, Turner was still desperate for cornering her, and she wasn't sure that Rio would have her back this time if anything happened, so she might as well enjoy the company of her family as long as she could.

Dean could tell the moment when she'd started to think that maybe he had changed for good. He could see that in the way she reacted to him, the way she talked to him, her gaze showing no trace of the contempt it had been filled with for the past two years. He felt particularly proud of himself for this last one. Hadn't been easy to win her back step by step, but saying that he was almost there didn't feel wrong for once. He still mentally high-fived himself whenever he recalled the subtle droplets of poison he'd been pouring in her brain day after day, about this life she'd been insane enough to think she could live, about that job which normal people referred to as crime, about _that guy_, whom he still hoped this FBI agent would arrest soon enough. He'd seen how doubt had started to spread around in her mind, how she'd started to wonder. He knew her so well, you don't get to spend twenty years by someone's side without learning a few things! And in return, he'd seen the love kernels she was throwing at him growing bigger and bigger as she was slowly walking away from her path of madness. For once he was glad that the girls were angry at her. They never had appreciated his true value, and by the time they would all make-up with each other, Bethie would be back where she belonged. She would be all his to enjoy. Soon.

And it took Beth a while, but at some point she realized that although she knew that Dean was taking advantage of the situation, she was choosing not to see it. She was settling again for this low-calories, comfortable life she'd been hating so much before. But maybe it was the only way she'd found to bury deep inside the fresh wounds left by everyone else's silence. Especially _someone_'s silence. She was trying not to think about it on another morning that had her struggling at putting the kids in the minivan. They were about to be late for school, but there was some lunchbox-related drama going on which took her a while to extinguish. 

And she was ready to start the car engine, when Jane suddenly exclaimed, "Mommy! I forgot my notebook!"

"Which one?" Beth snapped, already stressed out.

"The red one. I left it on the desk in my room," Jane whined.

Beth sighed, "Okay, sweetie, I'm going to fetch it, nobody moves from the car."

If she let any of her already over-excited children climb out of the car, she wouldn't manage to get the four of them seated back on time. She angrily climbed the stairs and rushed into Jane's room. The desk looked like it had just been hurricane-trashed, and she would definitely have a word with her later about tidiness, but it wasn't the emergency of the moment. She wandered through her daughter's mess, looking for the notebook, until a purple post-it note that looked vaguely familiar swirled down from the desk to the floor and caught her attention. All of a sudden a knot formed in her chest. She picked it up with shaky hands, her guts already knowing what her brain was still refusing to understand. She knew that note, and more importantly, she knew what was written on it. With _her_ handwriting.

Suddenly her legs couldn't carry her anymore and she let herself slide along the wall, breathless. Vaguely hoping that she had misread, she blankly stared at the piece of paper again, but she already knew what it contained. All the fucking details. She sighed, trying to control the nervous sobs already forming in her chest. The only good thing about this was that Rio hadn't betrayed her after all. But Dean had. Using her own children for it, sending her to an FBI trap that could have killed her or sent her to jail. Tears started to build in her eyes as she felt her whole world collapsing.

The yellings of the kids outside woke her up from her internal meltdown and she blinked. Oh right. School. She ran down the stairs and almost forgot to lock the front door behind her as she was rushing for the car.

"Mommy, where's my notebook?" Jane immediately welcomed her with the unconscious rudeness that only little kids could have.

Crap. She'd totally forgotten about it. She cleared her throat and it took her all she had to mask the shakiness in her voice.

"I didn't find it," she lightly replied, "But how about you use a separate sheet, just for today?"

Jane pouted, but somehow she sensed that her mother was upset because she didn't insist as much as she would normally have. The drive to school was excruciating, Beth focusing her mind as hard as she could on the road not to collapse, her hand clasped around the wheel so hard that her knuckles were white. She dropped the kids with loving smiles at each of them and she forced herself into driving over a few more blocks before she let everything go. She let out a raw, animal scream as she collapsed on the wheel, overwhelmed with a frustrated rage mixed with an urge to throw up.

"My own children!" she moaned to an imaginary Dean, "How could you?"

How could have she been so stupid, obsessively searching for a twisted, hidden Turner informant while it was happening right under her nose? She'd never let Dean get close enough of her activities to ever suspect him. Even with his whole getting back together strategy lately, she'd always been extra careful with whatever he could see or touch in the house. But this didn't apply to the _kids_, who were free to wander around in _their_ home. What a sick bastard. Didn't he have any shame nor boundaries? Kids were off-limits, that was what Rio always said.

Speaking of the devil... Her heart sank in her chest and she fought her sobs back at the thought of Rio. How could have she been so blind into accusing him of... of _this_? Not only had Dean manipulated her children against her and almost sent her away for good, but he had also lead her to destroy the fragile trust blooming between her and Rio, shattered their attempt at a relationship, and she'd just... fallen head first in this open trap. She'd ruined everything.

"You stupid bitch!" she cursed herself in a whisper, angrily wiping the tears on her cheeks.

She was the reason why this had happened. She was an awful mother. She briefly considered the succession of events leading her there. When had things started to go so much off the rail that they had turned her into a lonely murderer whose children were manipulated by their own father?

She needed to fix this. And she needed a drink to fix herself first. And, all things considered, probably more than one. At least that was her excuse when she ordered her fourth bourbon at ten in the morning, perched on top of one of the bar stool. _Their_ bar. Obviously. She had kind of hoped that he would be there, that she could clear things up and apologize to him, but the place was almost empty at this time of the day, and Rio was certainly not part of the bunch of early alcoholics who haunted a few booth in the back, nor the couple of freelance coffee-addict workers whose eyes never left their computer's screen between two sips of cappuccino. At least nobody really paid attention to her. There was this guy around 9:45 who'd tried to hit on her, but she'd rudely sent him away within a few seconds. She didn't have time for this.

She needed to speak to Rio, but she couldn't reach out to him. He wouldn't pick up the phone every time she'd call, and she didn't know what to say in a voicemail. Besides, she couldn't tell him _exactly_ what had happened. If he knew what Dean had done, he'd probably... She shivered. Rio was the most protective person she knew when it came to kids. And not only his own. He could kill Dean for that, and, well, not that the latter didn't deserve punishment, but Rio wasn't the one who'd get to decide what and when. Not that she was in any state to decide about anything, though. She was lost.

She texted Dean about picking up the kids at school in the afternoon. It was supposed to be his night, and she didn't want to have to actually speak to him to settle any detail. And seeing him was off the table for the moment. Until she'd make up her mind and decide what to do.

The only thing that mattered right now was finding Rio. Try to patch things up, if she wasn't already too late for that. Her heart clenched at the thought that maybe she'd already blown up their relationship for good, and she barely repressed her urge to cry.

She was a little tipsy when she left the bar, and clearly in no state for driving but she didn't care. She wandered all over town, tried his place, some storage units facilities, the warehouse they had argued at, and even Demon's place, or at least a bunch of sketchy street that she was almost sure were in his neighborhood, since she didn't exactly remember where Demon lived. She couldn't find anyone, anywhere. And nobody would pick up the phone, whether she'd call Rio, Demon, or one of the boys whose phone numbers she happened to randomly have.

This was actually starting to scare her. Rio being mad at her, she could get it despite the heartache. But not being able to reach out to anyone, that was weird. What if she had crucial information to report, like a feds emergency for instance?

She spent the whole day trying to call, driving from a disappointingly empty place to another, hence it was already dusk when she came back home, unsuccessful in her quest for anyone from Rio's gang. She only realized that she hadn't eaten anything since morning when she climbed out of the car and felt her legs shaking under her weight. But she wasn't hungry, her mind significantly panicking and shutting down her appetite. She had no idea of what was going on, but this wasn't normal.

No matter how angry at her he would be, Rio had always been around somehow, she'd never had to track him down for so long to find him. Breaking in his apartment was usually enough, back then, she bitterly acknowledged. And he'd always had her back, probably because he knew that if she went down he'd soon follow, but whatever. The point was, as far as she remembered, he'd always been somewhere in her shadow. Even as her enemy he would answer her calls. Mostly to taunt her, but still. Except that one time when he'd escaped to Legoland, and they both had learnt the hard way that it was not a good idea. So him and his whole crew suddenly vanishing, or at least ghosting her? It scared her. Maybe something FBI-related had happened, although she would probably know by now if it had. So maybe... Maybe Rio had burnt the bridges with her, for good this time, and she just... couldn't bear the idea.

She opened her front door with shaky hands. She was running short of options to sort this out, and she was desperate for any news from Rio. She was so much absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't notice anything before she felt two strong arms holding her back as she entered the living room. Her scream died on her lips when her eyes met Turner's satisfied smirk. He was standing in the middle of the room, a few steps away from her, and she realized that two men looking like massive goons were standing against the wall right behind her and firmly holding her from stepping forward. She struggled back from their grip for a few seconds, mostly for the show, but soon she admitted that they were too strong for her and she gave up.

"What do you want?" she spit at Turner with all the venom that already spending the worst day of her life had provided her with.

Seriously, that guy was gifted with the superpower of always showing up at the worst possible moments, and it infuriated her. She had other concerns which couldn't wait so could you please come back later? Thank you. Turner's smirk widened at her furious gaze.

"Your confession," he laconically replied, before he unnecessarily added, "For Harry's murder."

She suddenly realized that the two goons behind her back weren't FBI. They could hit her and do whatever they want to her, Turner wouldn't get his own hands dirty. Because he was supposed to abide by the law didn't mean that he couldn't ask other people not to in order to get what he needed. This was exactly what he had done before with Harry, she suddenly remembered. She had underestimated him.

"So what, you're going to hit me until I give you what you want? I'm tougher than I look," she bravely tried, internally wondering how long she would endure being beaten up before she'd confess everything.

"A pretty face like yours? I wouldn't allow it," Turner said with a vicious smile, "You're not the one who gets to be beaten up tonight!"

He turned his head and she followed his gaze towards the other side of the living-room, where two other goons she hadn't paid much attention to until now were standing side by side. They both took a step away from each other, revealing what, or, to be more accurate, _who_ they were hiding behind their back.

Beth felt like her heart had exploded in her chest at the sight, and she almost crumbled under the pain. Tied up to one of her dining table chair, covered with blood and obviously already beaten up was...

"Rio..." she whispered in a muffled sob.

At least now she knew why he hadn't been answering her calls.

Turner had to bite his cheeks not so let his smile widen. Finally. He had spent so much time trying to break that bond between the two of them that he hadn't seen the obvious answer. Using it. Although he had to admit that he'd have preferred to break them apart, but at some point he needed a breakthrough. Evidences in Harry's case kept weirdly slipping through his fingers, and he had to come up with something. Rio wasn't an easy bird to catch, but he had been imprudent lately. Distracted enough to neglect his background check before accepting a meeting with supposedly new customers. He hadn't even had time to realize what was happening to him before the whole content of a syringe of tranquilizer was already flowing through his body. Turner had delighted himself in putting a brown paper bag over Rio's head, just like the one he'd seen on _her_ that night at the loft. He wanted to make sure that Rio would get the reminder, and catch the irony of the whole situation.

Then he had watched his handyman hitting him while he got to taunt him, telling him how he would make sure that Elizabeth Boland would never get out of prison once he'd get her confession, enumerating all the refined tortures that were awaiting for her in the Big House. He'd relished the sight of Rio struggling against the ropes, heard him curse and threaten him, but that had only made him laugh. He hadn't mentioned what would happen to him, though. He wasn't sure yet. Of course he should arrest him as well, but... not so soon. He felt like a fascinated cat playing with a mouse before eating it. He'd been tracking Rio down for so long that he wanted to take his time to strike the last blow. Or maybe he just wanted to keep playing. Let's have her out, first, and then he'd figure. All he had to do for the moment was to savor the distress of his two favorite lovebirds. He grinned. Psychological torture was what he was best at.

Rio slowly raised his head when Beth whispered his name, and their eyes met in the most heartbreaking stare they'd ever exchanged. It only lasted a couple of seconds, though, before the guy standing on Rio's left punched him in the face, and Beth didn't even hear the sound of flesh and bones meeting, all covered with her own, loud scream. Now she got why Turner had assigned two men almost twice her size with the task of holding her. The strength she had deployed to try to reach at Rio had surprised even herself. Rio let out a muffled groan, spitting blood, but he barely got the chance to recover from the first punch before another clenched fist crashed on his face.

"Stop it! Please!" Beth screamed, oblivious of everything else but to make his torture, her torture, _their_ torture, to stop.

Turner raised a hand at his sidekicks, his eyes on Beth's face, "And you will sign confessions for what you did?"

"I'll give you anything you want," she surrendered, her chest throbbing with sobs and her whole body shaking.

Turner's grin widened, and suddenly she got afraid that her sacrifice would be made in vain.

"How do I know that you're not going to put a bullet in his head the second I sign your fucking confession?" she asked.

Turner burst into laughter, and she briefly wondered if he hadn't completely lost it. He slowly stepped towards Rio, savoring Beth's anxious eyes following him, until he got close enough to Rio to be able to touch him.

"Come on, Mrs Boland," — and she knew he was calling her by that name on purpose— "If I truly wanted to put a bullet inside of him, don't you think that I would have done that already?" he taunted, stroking Rio's grimacing face with one hand while the other one was pressing the barrel of his gun against his prisoner's skull.

Beth bit her lips, her eyes widened and anxiously fixed on Turner's hands.

"Don't touch him!" she hissed.

"Or even better," Turner ignored her intervention with a predatory grin, "I would have left him bleed to death after _you_ did put three bullets in that chest."

His eyes locked with Beth's before he let his fingers slowly slide along Rio's neck, then his collarbone, until they approximately pressed the area where Beth had shot him and she faltered under this last low blow. Having Rio so helpless in front of him, touching him, threatening him with his gun, it seemed to fascinate Turner. No, more than that. There was lasciviousness in the way his fingers had lingered on Rio's skin, stroked the wing on his neck. Oh God, could he be _attracted_ to him? Was that the reason for his obsessive hatred towards her? Was he _jealous_? Beth's eyes slightly widened. That would explain so much. Including the way he clearly seemed to get off from forcing her to watch whatever the fuck was happening in front of her.

Obviously Turner was also relishing his revenge for the time he'd been the one beaten up and tied up in Rio's apartment. Beth was fully aware of the irony of _that_. But this wasn't even the most insistent memory knocking on the door of her mind. Images of a bloody Rio sitting at her dining table, with a bloodier Dean by his side were swirling and dancing behind her eyes. Why did they _always_ use her dining table for this, she oddly wondered. For the third time in her life she was asked to make a choice from someone who was holding someone else as a beaten up hostage. And the two other times had ended with almost lethal gunshots, not the ones expected though. But this time, Rio wasn't the one challenging her to kill someone, this time she was as much helpless as him, and witnessing him on the beaten side was unbearable.

"I'll need a proof that he's safe and out of your reach before I sign anything," she requested with a slightly steadier voice, unwilling to surrender without at least imposing her conditions.

Turner nodded, "You'll have it."

"Good," she said in a breath.

There was a silence which suddenly got broken by Rio's muffled voice.

"Elizabeth... Don't," he hissed with a pleading gaze that broke her heart.

And maybe she was supposed to trust him whatever happened, but this time she just couldn't. Each extra minute he spent tied on that chair was already too much, it was just killing her. And she knew that the smart thing to do would be to pretend that she didn't care, she should try to make Turner believe that he'd pulled the wrong lever with this, but that was beyond her strength.

She shook her head, tears filling her eyes, "I'm sorry. I can't," she whispered to Rio, before she turned her face to Turner, "I'm ready."

Turner waved his head at one of the goons and the latter exited the room for maybe half a minute before he came back with a whole squad of FBI agents. He'd left his guys outside. Whatever had just happened in this room, Turner was the only one under oath there, and it would be her words against his without any other valid witness, she realized.

She felt the pressure around her chest and arms vanishing, only for someone else to roughly pull her arms backwards and handcuff her wrists.

"Elizabeth Irene Marks, divorced Boland, you're under arrest for the murder of Harry LaCroix. You have the right to remain silent..." 

But Beth wasn't listening anymore. Eyes locked with Rio's, tears rolling down her cheeks, her mouth silently articulated what she thought might be her last words to him.

_I love you_.

She didn't say a word during the drive to Turner's office. Not that she really cared about the fact that any of her declarations could be held against her later, though. She was just... somewhere else. Chewing her thoughts and accepting that she'd lost. Maybe this couldn't have happened any other way. Maybe it had been foolish from her to think that she could get away with all of this, that she could play in the big leagues with absolutely zero background in the criminal field. And mostly, maybe that was what she deserved for all the mistakes she'd made, for having shot Rio and failed at trusting him.

_You mess things up, either you go to jail or you die._

Maybe her sacrifice was her redemption, after all. He'd suffered because of her, so much, she'd shattered his life and his business, more than once, so... it was the least she could do, giving him his freedom back in exchange of hers. She didn't expect him to try to get her out of this. Not after what had happened lately. She hoped that he would understand why she was doing this, that he could even put anything he wanted on her to get away with his own troubles. It wouldn't make much difference, considering how much she was already screwed.

Hence she got a huge surprise when she entered Turner's office after a ride that had seemed to last an eternity. A tall, elegant woman was already sitting there, who immediately got up and shook hands with Turner.

"How nice to meet you, Agent Turner, I'm Gretchen Zorada, Miss Marks's attorney, " she introduced herself with a seductive smile, "Needless to say that my client won't declare anything before I get to speak to her."

Turner pursed his lips, obviously pissed, but he nodded, and Gretchen quickly switched to Beth, whose face had troubles at hiding her surprise. Who was that woman again? She pulled her poker face back on the second Turner laid eyes on her though, while Gretchen was shaking hands with her too.

"How are you since the last time, _Elizabeth?_ I wish we didn't meet again amidst such conditions, though, but I'm sure this is only a misunderstanding..."

Beth's attention distracted from Gretchen's rambling. Clearly the whole point of her speech was only to let her know that Rio had sent her, and Beth's heart beat faster at the thought. Maybe she still had a chance at getting out of all this mess, after all. Although she had no idea of how, given that Turner had to know that too, because Rio was the only person who could have sent someone so quickly, but. One panicking issue at a time.

So she put on her most social smile to greet Gretchen back, "I'm fine, Gretchen, nice to see you! By the way, thank you again for your legal advice the other day, I talked to Dean about this custody option and it seems like it could really work for us! But mostly, I've got to say, thank you so much for this new cookies recipe, the kids loved it!"

Turner rolled his eyes upwards at this absurd PTA-style chatting, but Beth could tell that he'd bought their little con-game and was only half-listening, already convinced that Gretchen's impact on the case wouldn't exceed a few years reduction on Beth's final sentence.

Gretchen nodded with a discreet knowing wink at her before she replied, "Yeah, the truth always lies in the small details, you know, that's what makes these cookies so special! One deviation from the original recipe and you can call it a day."

Beth held her breath at this and she slowly nodded. She knew exactly what to do.

Later in the evening, Annie emptied her glass of wine with a satisfied smile. She'd just introduced Patrick to Sadie, and based on the shared excitement with which the two of them were presently lying on her living room floor and trapped into a cute baby animals YouTube loop, she could say that their first encounter was positive. And call her an eternal optimistic, but maybe she had finally reached a stage in her life where things didn't have to be so shitty in that field anymore. It was _about_ time! Jeez, she thought, waving her eyebrows at herself while pouring another glass of wine, how many douchebags had been paving the way leading her to this Decent Guy-dom? More than she could count, that was for sure.

"Mom, come to see this one, it's hilarious!" Sadie hailed her.

"Coming, baby!" Annie replied, trying to extract from her couch without spilling wine everywhere.

Whoopsie, maybe she'd had a little too much already... Meh, she shrugged, it wasn't like she was supposed to do anything more complicated tonight than going to bed within an hour or two! She was about to let herself crash on the floor in front of the I-pad when her doorbell rang. Patrick raised his eyebrows at her.

"Were you waiting for someone, honey?"

Annie frowned, "No! That's weird..." she replied while heading towards the door.

"Mom, you shouldn't open the door, you know Detroit's full of weirdos," Sadie intervened, only half-joking.

"Oh come on, I'm a big girl!" she protested, although she grabbed Sadie's baseball bat before she opened the door.

Her jaw dropped at the sight and it took her several seconds to be able to speak again.

"No, no, no, no... No!" she firmly started, "I'm not supposed to talk to you without Beth's approval, otherwise she shouts at me! Plus I'm having a family time right now, so..."

Rio considered her with something which looked like amused curiosity in his eyes, before he negligently dropped, "Cool. You already in the mood, then, cuz it's 'bout family too. Elizabeth got arrested. I need your help."

It wasn't before this instant that Annie noticed with a gasp the bruises on Rio's face and the blood on his shirt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I just sign Jane up for ten years in therapy starting the day she realizes that she almost sent her mother in jail? Yeah, pretty much... But honestly, what did you think this _Dean has no shame_ tag was for? 🤔
> 
> Also, I didn't see that coming when I plotted this chapter, but now I totally ship a Turio bromance, _Killing Eve_ style... Help me!!! 😱😱😱


	6. Missing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Even though I'm the sacrifice, _  
_You won't try for me, not now. _  
_Though I'd die to know you love me, _  
_I'm all alone. _  
_Isn't someone missing me? _  
(Song from **Evanescence**)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know basically NOTHING about judicial system in Michigan and more generally in the US except for what's showed in movies and TV shows, which I assume is already mostly inaccurate. So please don't yell at me if what follows is technically impossible, and let's pretend that this _can_ happen for the sake of the story!! 😂

_I need your help._

Annie looked at Rio with a mix of stupor and shock until Patrick's voice rose in her back.

"Who is it, honey?"

She blinked, stepping aside to let Rio in, "Um, I'm having a... family emergency... sorta. So... I guess it's bedtime for everyone."

"Mom, it's still early!" Sadie protested, angrily frowning at Rio.

Patrick raised his eyebrows in surprise when Rio stepped in and he briefly nodded a slightly annoyed _'Hi'_ at him.

"I could take Sadie out if you need some time," he offered, "Hey Sade's, what about you and I go grab some fro-yo?"

"Sounds amazing."

"We won't be back too late, I promise," Patrick told Annie, "How much time do you think your... emergency will take?" he asked, staring at the intruder with straightforward hostility.

Annie briefly glanced at Rio, unsure of what to say, and the latter smirked with a chuckle, "If I may, I think it's gonna take longer than a fro-yo, yeah? I'm talkin' the whole night longer," he drawled.

"Excuse me?" Annie squinted, but Patrick nodded.

"It's fine. I got this, honey. I'll take care of Sadie. But we'll talk tomorrow and you better have a good explanation," he added with a warning look on his face.

Annie let out a little chocked noise and Patrick nodded at Sadie, "C'mon Sade's, let's go!"

Ostensibly pissed his mother, and to a lesser extent at Rio, Sadie followed Patrick in the hallway, "Hey, man, you are _not_ going to believe this one with the baby kangaroo..."

"Have fun!" Annie greeted them with her most loving voice, but neither of them bothered to reply and she closed the door with a sigh, "If my boyfriend breaks-up with me because of you, I swear you'll have to fix it, Gangfriend!"

He sighed. He didn't have the fucking time for this.

"My bad, I didn't realize that you'd rather visit your sister through a _parlor_ for the next twenty years!" he snapped back, and Annie was this close to slap him, but like, no, these bruises on his face looked freaking painful.

And oh God. What did he just say?

"Twenty years? Is it that bad?" she asked with widened eyes, before she added, half for herself, "Of course it's bad if it has you _asking for someone's help_..."

Rio pursed his lips with a hard expression, "Murder," he laconically dropped.

Annie's forehead furrowed as she went all practical, "Which one?" she asked, "Rapist guy or flowerbed guy?"

Rio's eyes slightly widened. As annoying as she was, he had to admit that Elizabeth's sister was tougher that she looked. What was with the women in this family? Did summin' happen in their childhood that got them to turn so badass?

"Rapist guy," he answered in a low voice, his fists involuntarily clenching at the sudden memory of what Harry and his boys had done to Elizabeth back then, "Wait, you know 'bout that?" he suddenly realized.

Annie bit her lips, nodding, "She... kinda blurt it out, yeah. Okay, that's bad! What do you need me for?"

He took a deep breath, "First thing to do is bail her out. I'm workin' on the judge for that, but it won't be cheap."

"Dude, it's a _murder_ charge, it's not like getting caught with weeds in your work locker or robbing a grocery store! How can you be so sure that she'll get a bail?"

Rio's lips stretched in a sardonic smile, "What did I just say? Got a guy workin' on it. Plus she ain't a threat to society. She looks normal. She's... how did she say? Yeah, payin' taxes and bringing fuckin' orange slices to soccer games. "

Annie raised her eyebrows, "Wow, sounds like your idea of normal life is pure dream material! So... Not cheap like in how much?"

"I'm talkin' thousand grand not cheap."

Annie started to laugh, "Like a _million_? Hold on, dude, I think you kinda overestimated my savings here, just because I'm a little above minimum wage these days doesn't mean that—"

"I ain't askin' you money," he dryly cut her.

"What, you've got a million box out of your pocket now?" she snorted before the dismayed look on his face reminded her, oh, right, he _made_ those.

"The thing is, I can't show up with a suitcase full of funny money, that would be the end, for both of us. I need you to make it look like it's legit."

"So you want _me_ to show up with your fake cash?"

He shook his head, "Nuh huh. Gotta be real this time."

It took him a while to explain it all to her, and honestly she might have had a little too much to drink to fully understand every subtlety of his exposé, but the bottom line was that he didn't have enough real money like right out of the vault at the moment. But he had a safety net. Some elaborated banking scheme which resulted into hundreds of bank accounts opened under fake names all across the country.

"They don't carefully check the cash when you deposit small amounts at a time," he explained.

So as it turned out, for years he'd sent an army of boys — and apparently a few girls too — on some cash-saving mission once in a while. Like the most time-wasting, twisted insurance plan of all times if anyone asked for her opinion. But in the end it was worth like... a lot. Her eyes widened when he gave her the total amount of it.

"I can't believe you threatened and bullied us over a few grand while you're so fucking rich!" she exclaimed, "That's, like, rude! And mean!"

"Wouldn't have the money if I didn't pay attention to every grand, yeah?" he pointed out, "And I told you, this is only back-up money. I ain't usin' it for shoppin'. Al'ight, enough with the talkin'. You got a laptop here?"

She nodded, still unsure of what she was supposed to do but she quickly got up on her feet when she clocked the angry clenching in his jaw. God, did this guy ever _relax_? Was he, like, this tense all the time? She'd _really_ have to investigate someday about what Beth saw in him. Apart from what could only but be a magic dick since it apparently made her forget about, well, the rest of him.

Rio sighed as he watched Anna or whatever the fuck was her name head to her bedroom. The night was going to be long, and if she kept going with her annoying and not-so-funny jokes, he swore he'd... No. Just because he was furious and anxious as fuck, it didn't mean that she had to pay for it. Wasn't her fault. Wasn't anyone's fault except his. He'd been so used to be the boss, be the only one in control, that he'd forgotten what having a partner would mean. So confident into his ability at predicting everyone's move that he'd... kinda relied on that too much. Forgotten that freaking Elizabeth was the definition of unpredictability, that she would make mistakes or do stuff not even vaguely related to what he expected from her. And sometimes it was for the best, like this one time she'd showed up with a brand new list of potential fake passports customers without having even asked him about it first. But there were all the goddam other times when she'd mess up, and it drove him crazy. He'd kept asking her to trust _him_, but he had to admit that he'd never been able to trust her enough to let her fully manage her share of the business. Always wanted to keep an eye on it, which wasn't enough to prevent catastrophes.

Until it all got outta control. Turner. He clenched his fists at the thought. He didn't fucking care about a lil bit of punching, wasn't his first time, wouldna be his last. But the look in Elizabeth's eyes, the way Turner had used him to torture _her_... That was unforgivable. And the fact that she gave in so quickly, he quite... okay, he _understood_ it. But it fucking complicated everything, put them at a level of risk they'd never reached before. She'd passed on a royal occasion to play it cold hard bitch and that was kinda pissing him off. And, well. Course he was also still mad at her for the time she'd accused him of some random betrayal while she was flipping rotten eggs without further inquiry. But he hadn't seen her since that time she'd literally fucked him on her couch, and he'd had a shock when Turner's handymen — some of whom used to work for him in the past by the way, so their proper turn would come too — had moved apart in front of him. It felt like every time he saw her, he rediscovered how much she mattered. How much he wanted her. How much he missed her. And sure they still had a pile of shit to sort out, but getting her outta there was his number one priority. This point wasn't even open to discussion.

As soon as Turner's boys had let him go, he'd called Gretchen. He really hoped she'd made it on time, that is, before Elizabeth signed any fully incriminating fucking confession. She could be so melodramatic sometimes, she was capable of giving up on everything, convinced that the game was over, no hope left, that kind of adorable bullshit. Death was the ultimate game over. And nothing else. Then he'd sent his safety proof. Turner had told him to text him whatever he wanted that would let Elizabeth know that he wasn't kept in some fucking dungeon for further torture. He'd given it a proper thought. It couldn't be anything incriminating for any of them. Had to be summin' Turner wouldn't get and couldn't use, but with a secret meaning which Elizabeth would understand. He'd searched his pockets and grabbed the first purchase receipt he could find. On its back he'd written a big _Truce_ in capital letters, doing his best at giving it his worse handwriting. Nobody could ever emulate that, she'd know it came from him with no doubt. She was always making fun of the way he traced his letters but she'd never fully gotten the advantage of how unique it was. Plus he liked the idea of pissing people off even when he wasn't there, giving them a hard time at deciphering his scribbles. And, well, truce was kinda their safe word at this point, so... He'd waited a bit more, buying Gretchen some time, before he'd sent the pic to Turner, knowing that he could only but hope for the best from then. Left with no other choice but to trust her, trust the smart brain she sometimes demonstrated between two lunatic outbursts, and accept the unbearable fact that he wasn't in control anymore, despite all of his tricks and precautions. _You got this, Elizabeth. C'mon._

He heard the stomping steps of Annika — Annette? — coming back to the living room, and he rolled his eyes up with a sigh. She was obviously slightly drunk already, which wasn't a surprise since it sounded like her conversation mostly involved anecdotes about her being trashed, but he hoped it wouldn't complicate the absurdly tedious piece of work that was awaiting for them.

She stopped dead in the door frame with a sigh, "Was kinda hoping I drunk-hallucinated you," she grumbled.

Rio grinned, "Me too."

This mutual acknowledgement of annoyance seemed to work as a truce declaration and they both stopped snapping at each other for a while as they went full practical.

"Okay, Imma need you to launch one of these online fundraisin's, and send it to all your contact, yeah? The more noise it makes, the better. You one of them millenials who know how to make shit outta social media, right?"

Annie gave him an astonished look, "Oh my God, so Beth _wasn't_ kidding when she told me that you asked her what a hashtag was?"

Rio's jaw ticked in amused annoyance, "Yeah, she ain't supposed to tell that kinda stuff to anybody."

Annie uncontrollably giggled before she got back to serious, "Not to quench your expectations here, Gangfriend, but even if I were super insta-popular, which I'm not, I wouldn't get you a million box on a fundraiser within one night."

"Nah, you or your friends wouldna. But these guys will," he told her, handing her a bunch of paper sheets containing a list of names and credit card numbers.

She squinted, "So am I supposed to enter these one by one for small donations? This is gonna take forever!"

"I told you we would need the whole night," he chuckled.

She gave him a furious look but the way he kept staring at her soon intimidated her enough so she started working. Until fuck, how could she have forgotten?

"Wait. There's something I need to do first," she said.

She started with Dean, texting him about the situation so he could do whatever what necessary for the kids. And then... She bit her lips, unsure of what to do, her thumb wandering above the texting thread. She briefly glanced at Rio to find him interrogatively staring at her, and Jeez, he looked like he knew exactly what she was wondering about, like some superpower. She winced. Of course he knew. He couldn't have _unnoticed_. No matter the amount of time he'd spent eyefucking with Beth over every cash drop, the simple fact that he was at her place right now meant that she'd starred in his peripheral vision at least once or twice, so. He had to know there was usually someone else too.

"They're... not really talking at the moment," she tentatively explained.

She realized that her rambling didn't probably make any sense, but he seemed to get it.

"Well, I'm sure she'd want to know anyway," he softly replied in a low voice and she slowly nodded.

Unwilling to corner Ruby with a call, she texted her a quick summary of what was going on before dropping her phone face down on the coffee table. Rio pulled his own computer out of his duffel bag, and as soon as she opened the online funding pot, they both silently worked side by side, entering various donations amounts from Rio's list of bank accounts.

"Isn't it too obvious, though?" she suddenly asked, "Like they'll know this money didn't magically appear because Beth's fate broke the heart of, let's say," — she browsed the bank accounts list — "Gordon Irvin from Houston, Texas!"

"Course they'll know," Rio approved, "But trackin' down the money ain't worth the time and cost so they'll have to take it anyway."

He watched her as she got back to work in silence and he shook his head, rolling his eyes at his own screen. At some point her boyfriend or whatever called her. Apparently, Roderick — Erik? Patrick? — was kinda bonding with her kid so he was offering him — her? Fuck, he couldn't remember the kid's gender switch direction, he should have listened to Elizabeth's rambling more carefully — to sleepover at his place so they wouldn't disturb their work night. Elizabeth's sister seemed quite reluctant at first, but then she briefly glanced at the pile of bank accounts listings and she okay-ed in a sigh.

Then they stayed in a quite cold silence for a few hours until Anastasia — hum, no, this one sounded definitely weird — suddenly raised her head with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Summin' wrong?"

"Yeah, I feel like there's something missing, here..."

She got up and briefly disappeared in the kitchen, coming back with two mugs and a bottle of cheap vodka.

"Nutrition necessity," she hoarsely replied to his raising eyebrow, pouring herself a generous serving, "Here. Help yourself, Gangfriend, I only have two hands!"

And she was also probably still too pissed at him to even try to be _nice_, he thought. They clinked their mugs with annoyed faces and Rio took a sip of alcohol. It tasted fucking awful, burning his throat and everything, but at least it was preventing him from giving in his beginning sleepiness. Annie — yeah, that last one sounded kinda familiar? — seemed to relax a bit.

"I'm sorry that I didn't offer before, but if you need some healing stuff for your face, I've got—" she started.

"Nah I'm good," he declined, "But thanks."

There were a few seconds of silence before she loudly inhaled and he knew she was going to speak again. Fuck, couldn't the bitch keep a mouth shut?

"What happened, exactly?" she asked, and oh, right.

He bit his bottom lip with a wince, "Turner kinda... realized that Elizabeth wouldn't like to see me punched."

She shivered, "That's, like, brutal."

He hummed in agreement, still mechanically entering numbers on the fundraising website when she spoke again, and Christ, what now?

"Can I ask you a question?"

"What?" he almost snapped.

"Listen, I hate to play the what-are-your-intentions-with-my-sister annoying kind of sibling, but, like, you and Beth, is it a _thing_ thing, or just like, you know, a thing..."

"Whatchu mean?" he frowned at Annie's avalanche of _things_.

"Oh come on, you know what I mean! Like obviously, you're hot, so I totally get the banging the gangbanger stuff, but is there, like, you know... something else?"

"I'm sorry, is this any of your business? Why you askin' me that?"

"Because..." she started, "No, never mind," she mumbled in a low voice, almost apologetic.

She suddenly looked like she was about to cry, and he didn't want to answer her question, but somehow he pitied her. She was clearly tired, and anxious, and this was surely not the kind of evening she'd planned. He wasn't exactly having the time of his life, and this wasn't probably fun for her either. And well, the last time she'd been tipping him 'bout Elizabeth's feelings, it had turned out quite useful in the end. Perhaps his second vodka was also hitting his brain a bit too hard already, leaving him with an odd urge to _open up_. Whatever.

"I dunno, okay?" he eventually replied with a slight shake of his head, "She said she ain't into labels."

He most certainly didn't expect Annie's loud snort at his answer, "And you bought that? From someone who's got a _system_ for sorting cereal boxes? And you think you're the smart guy here?"

He couldn't help but smile. She kinda had a point.

"So what's your call, Sherlock?" he asked.

She opened big, bulging eyes at him like he was an alien or some shit, "Dude! It's obvious. She's scared!"

"Of me?"

That was actually shocking news. She guffawed.

"Not you, idiot! To be honest I'm even surprised that she got the guts to tell you she loved you. Do you know that she actually never told Dean? Well, it's probably a good sign, though..."

Rio squinted. He couldn't believe Elizabeth, that was fuckin' _private_!

"She tells you that kind of stuff too?" he asked, slightly threatening.

"Ooooh, Rio," she started with a teasing voice, and it was actually the first time he heard her calling him by his name, "If you knew — Oh my God!" she suddenly broke off, one hand covering her mouth.

"What?" he asked in a frown.

This woman was even more lunatic than her sister, for fuck's sake! She didn't seem to master the basic skills of normal conversation to begin with. He was this close to giving up at trying to understand what she was up to when she started to speak again.

"It's just... She talked about a very special occasion," — Rio's frown deepened —, "I always assumed it was something gross, but wasn't it, well, more or less around the time Harry got, you know...?" she said with a tiny voice, "Was that, like... _related_?"

Fuck. She was smarter than he thought. And the memory of that night was, well. Still breathtaking, obviously, gave him fucking butterflies, the whole shit. But also kinda painful too. Did Elizabeth mean any word of what she'd said then, like at all, or was it another one of her pathological lies? He silently nodded, wondering why this conversation was happening, but knowing that there was no point in denying.

Annie didn't say anything for a few seconds, seemingly processing, until she sententiously let out, "You guys are absolute weirdos... And you should really stick to whatever the fuck you have cause if you want my opinion you're already way too lucky to have found each other!"

His face darkened, "Well we'll see 'bout that. You know we ain't talkin' so much at the moment, yeah?"

"I also know that you stayed up all night and blew up your work of a lifetime retirement plan for her, so..." Annie softly pointed out with a smirk.

He rubbed his face with his palm and got himself a third vodka.

They were still at it when the sun rose, and by then the bottle of vodka was empty. Annie stretched the sore muscles of her back, repressing a yawn, and took a look at Rio, still typing on his keyboard. Well, the guy may have many flaws but she was quite impressed with his determination. And apparently he could be not too much of a dick sometimes, and even kind of... of fun. For lack of a better word. At some point in the middle of the night, while they were both exhausted, he had come up with some sort of dumb game to maintain them awake, like trying to invent some details about the lives of the non-existent people whose names filled the bank accounts list. It had quickly escalated into a contest of who'd come up with the most bizarre extravagance, leaving them sometimes gasping for fresh air when they couldn't stop laughing. And okay, to be honest they were both fairly drunk at the time but still.

"Why you smilin' at me?"

Gangfriend's voice awoke her from her thoughts, and she shook her head, "I was just thinking that you could be nice sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I still think that you're an obnoxious asshole who scares the shit out of me, but... I'm glad Beth found you."

He smiled back at her and they didn't talk for a few seconds.

"Hey, your name is Annie, right?" he eventually asked.

She opened wide eyes, "Dude, seriously? Back to dick mode? Already?" she asked, before she noticed his genuinely interrogative look, "Oh my God, you're asking for real! This is even worse than I thought..." she mumbled, rolling her eyes up.

He probably took her reaction as a confirmation because he only said, "Well I guess you can be nice too, _Annie_."

"Doesn't quite roll off the tongue as classy as Elizabeth, huh?" she teased back, and he smirked.

It was passed nine o' clock when they finally made it through the list.

"Soooo," Annie announced, "Our fundraising made a total of, drum roll please," — she raised her eyes at the skies at Rio's complete lack of reaction and skipped to the next part — "999,958.23 dollars! Courtesy of Gordon Irvin and his friends."

"What's with the 23 cents?" he frowned.

"Oh I just thought it would be fun. Might be Trevor Carson's donation, or... Heather Donovan? Can't remember actually. They all look the same to me. I don't wanna sound racist, but non-existent people are kinda not like us!"

And he knew that he should have been annoyed with her rambling but he couldn't help but smile instead. Sleep deprivation. That was probably it. Made you do crazy stuff. He briefly closed his eyes until his phone beeped with a text notification.

"The bail amount's 'bout to be set," he announced, "Gretchen says it's gonna be a million."

"Who?" Annie squinted before she shrugged, "Never mind. So we're like what, forty box short? Let me grab my purse so I get to save the day, just for once..."

But she didn't have to. When she glanced back at her computer screen she let out a small gasp.

"Oh my God, someone just donated a hundred. It's... it's Ruby."

She checked her phone, but her friend hadn't bothered to reply her text, and well. That was still upsetting, Ruby would have called right away if she'd...

"Imma leave now," Rio announced, "Takes 12 to 24 hours to transfer all the money so I guess you can get her out by tomorrow mornin'. Just let me know when you're goin' there, okay?"

"Okay," she nodded, her voice a bit dully as the exhaustion of the night was falling on her.

He patted her shoulder when he walked past her with a gentle "And get yourself a rest today, yeah?" and she hummed absent-mindedly, still thinking about Ruby when she heard Rio's voice again, coming from the apartment entrance, "Annie?"

She raised her head and met his gaze, "Huh huh?"

"Thanks," he muttered.

She blinked, and a moment later he was gone.

Beth felt weird. Absent, disconnected from everything. It felt like the events of the past day had just been too much to absorb, until her brain had shut down at some point. She'd vaguely thought that there still was a chance when Gretchen had talked to her, when Turner had shown her the ugly _Truce_ Rio had sent which still made her smile whenever she thought about it, but. She'd soon fallen back into a mildly catatonic state of mind. She was facing murder charges for a crime she did commit, was there any coming back from that? She'd complied to Gretchen's advice, though, just in case, hoping she'd interpreted it correctly.

_The truth lies in details_

What was the point of a full confession if it didn't prove anything? So she'd done her best at being as inaccurate as possible about everything in her statement, carefully avoiding to give away any detail that only someone who'd indeed been on that crime scene could know. Hadn't been an easy game to play, especially after she'd almost fainted from starvation during Turner's interrogation. She hadn't realized that her blood pressure was dropping until she'd seen everything turning to black. Turner's assistant had gotten her a cereal bar from the vending machine and she'd felt slightly better afterwards, but Turner had seemed to think that she'd been faking the whole thing, and he'd gotten... angry. Pressing. Humiliating. Flooding her with harsh questions and mean statements about her life. Maybe a little too much. He'd let slip some information that could turn out to be useful, providing she escaped from his claws first.

She'd stood up against this onslaught of hatred, though. Nothing to lose anymore but her dignity and her pride, right? Her shaky hand had signed her definitive confession around 3am. Then she'd just curled up on her cell's bed. She didn't care that it wasn't comfy and that her back would probably hurt in the morning. She didn't care about not having any change of clothes. She didn't care about the noise, the smell, or the pale light from the bulb hanging from the corridor ceiling. She couldn't sleep anyway. Turner had told her that she would never get a bail, that the judge in charge was a close friend, and, well. She'd suffocated at the thought, but also it had been a relief somehow. She'd given it her best, and now... now there was no point in fighting anymore. Time to just... let it all go.

Finally she could focus on trying to process, one grief at a time, all that had happened. Dean's betrayal, the girls' silence, her unfair accusation at Rio, the sight of him beaten up — nope, still too soon for that — and Turner's bargain, the interrogation. It felt... unreal. Everything had changed so suddenly that she'd barely acknowledged it, her world had collapsed around her and before she'd known it there were only but debris for her to pick up. And trying to fathom what the future held was just... too much. Unbearable. She had to think about it little bite after little bite. Her biggest concern so far was about the kids. If she got convicted, they would live with Dean full time and he... didn't deserve them. Not after what he'd done to her, to _them_. She wished they could live with Annie or Ruby instead, but there was no judge in the world who would allow that. Plus Annie and Ruby were... another bite she wasn't ready to chew yet.

That was how she eventually fell asleep at some point. So empty that she didn't even have tears left to shed.

At least Patrick and Sadie had bonded. That was probably the most positive news brought by the night, Annie thought. And okay, Gregg would be mad at her if he knew that she'd let Sadie sleep at a _stranger_'s, cause although Patrick was only technically a stranger, Annie was sure that Gregg would totally call him that. Mostly because he was jealous but that wasn't the point. Sadie texted her in the morning, informing her that Patrick had drove him to school and was _super awesome_. It was the first time since Noah that Sadie liked one of her boyfriends so much and well, it felt nice. Maybe even super awesome, she smiled. Nicer at least than Patrick's alarming _'We need to talk'_ a couple of hours later. Over a _text_. Ugh. Why did things always have to be messed up? Why did Patrick have to be so innocent? She'd tried some of Beth's background check techniques on him in the early times of their relationship, desperate for anything shady which would bring them to the same level, but she hadn't found anything so far but a couple of parking ticket. Quite not cash-washing same level. Not that she _wanted_ to date a criminal though, please, she wasn't Beth, but she had to admit that some of her side-activities could act as a real deal breaker, a nice-guy repellent of a weird kind.

And here was the thing. She didn't want her... side-job to be Patrick-repellent. So she'd been delaying the fateful talk, maybe deluding herself a little bit into the idea that it would never come up if she kept acting this way, but it seemed like she couldn't step away from it anymore. Which made it even worse now that he'd met with Sadie. The latter would give her the silent treatment for _weeks_ if she screwed up another relationship. And she couldn't tell Patrick the truth, right? With Beth facing murder charges, now was certainly not the time to share criminal confidences with _strangers_, not only technically this time. And lying to Patrick was, well, not exactly the first step towards a healthy relationship.

So she went for the half-lie option. Come on, it _was_ a thing! She invited Patrick over, offered him apologies with his coffee — he'd turned down the vodka — promised it would never happen again — half lie, Gangfriend was unpredictable — and then tried to explain. Told him that Beth had been arrested under shady motives — half lie, the murder charges were pretty clear, but this whole Turner thing _was_ shady, right? — and that her considerate _boyfriend_ — okay, she wasn't sure of where this one was standing on the lying scale — was bailing her out through a complicated financial operation — technically true. The reason why Rio needed her, and the whole night, for that were a bit more unclear though.

"I'm not stupid, Annie, I've seen what this guy looks like. I know he doesn't work in accountancy or HR department," Patrick replied, and she had to bite her lips not to let out that _technically_ both his suggestions could partially describe Rio's business line. "But I don't care," he added, "as long as you are not involved into this. Did you do anything illegal last night?"

"Me? Nah... I just opened an online fundraiser," she shook her head with a wave of her hand which definitely carried a _'Me? Please...'_ vibe.

Well, that had been a close one. But she would have to tell him the truth at some point. Just... Not now. She had more urgent business to handle. Like getting some sleep and trading a million dollar for her _sister_, for instance.

Beth didn't look very well when she picked her up on the next morning. She seemed... off. Like normal and stuff but just different. Kinda broken maybe. They hugged for what felt like hours although okay, it probably only lasted five minutes.

"Annie, I'm so sorry—" Beth started but Annie immediately cut her off.

"Say no more. It's okay. Just get in the car."

Maybe this was irrational but Annie was worried that as long as they'd stay on that parking lot, there was still a chance for Turner or whoever of his accomplices to show up with a new arrest warrant. And, well, if she let Beth go full apologetic, then she was a hundred percent sure that her sister would start to cry, which would inevitably lead _her_ to cry too, so.

Beth seemed to relax a bit in the car, some life made its way back into her which was a relief at least. Kinda.

"How did you... I mean... Turner told me that I wouldn't get out, that he knew the judge!" Beth asked with confusion.

"I guess _someone_ had bigger arguments," Annie smiled, and Beth frowned back to her thoughts for the rest of the ride.

The first thing Annie saw when she and Beth entered the living room was Ruby. She'd texted her, along with Rio, informing both of them that she was about to bring Beth back home, but she hadn't expected any of them to come.

Beth walked like an automat straight to Ruby's opened arms, although the latter warned her, "Just to be clear, I'm still mad at you, but..."

Beth absent-mindedly hummed and nodded, and she wrapped her arms around her friend, her forehead resting on Ruby's shoulder. Even from where she stood, Annie could tell that they were both crying. She rolled her eyes aside and clocked Rio's dark silhouette in one angle of the room, silently staring at the scene.

Annie gave him a side glance, her head nodding towards Elizabeth with an obvious _'Go ahead'_ intent, and that annoyed him. What the hell? Apparently spending a sleepless drunk night working together seemed to be enough of a reason for Annie to act like a stupid wingman around him. Like they were _buddies_ now, or summin'. No way. He should have kept his fucking mouth shut. And what was with the nod, like they all had to take a ticket to welcome Elizabeth back home? He'd never been much of a line up guy. Annie had a point though. He... kinda hated the part of him which just wanted to hug Elizabeth and smell her hair and tell her sickening cheesy stuff. Ew. Not his jam. At all. Plus he just couldn't. Not in front of her ladyfriends, and not until they sorted their shit out. Not until he knew whether she cared. Course he'd seen her face when she'd been arrested, course he'd _noticed_, but the bitch could keep mouthing her dramatic declarations all day long, it wouldn't mean anything. Wouldn't be the first time she'd given him lamb eyes to escape the slaughter. It didn't change the fact that she'd kept rejecting him with accusations that still hurt, although he'd never admit it to anyone. He didn't trust himself in keeping his distance with her, he'd even probably be dumb enough to _forgive_ her if he got too close. 'Til next time. She'd royally screw up something else and throw a big _'Fuck you'_ at him, and it would hurt again. And just... nah. Enough.

So he hid behind the highest walls he could build around him, burying deep inside his urge for touching her, and putting on his coldest face before he loudly cleared his throat.

Beth raised her head, suddenly realizing that Rio was there, and she slowly stepped back from Ruby's embrace, her eyes taking in the bruises on his face and the cold look in his eyes. You'd think that she'd get used to it but no. It still made her heart sink deep. She shivered, more lost than ever. Why did he bail her out — because it had to be him — if he hated her so much?

"Hey. Can we... can we talk?" she tentatively said.

" 'Bout what?" he snapped at her, and his aggressiveness startled her, "You're welcome by the way. As much as I appreciate your lil sacrifice for the bone structure of my face, I had to pull a hell of a string to get you outta there and you got no idea of how much it cost me," he coldly added.

But she wasn't exactly in the mood for despising reproaches from him. Maybe she deserved it but it wasn't the point. The emotional rollercoaster had been too strong lately, and he wasn't exactly helping with this.

"Yeah, cause you could really use the money once you're beaten up dead!" she angrily replied.

"C'mon, he wouldna killed me... Just wanted to pressure you a lil bit. And you gave in, almost immediately."

His tone was casual but it sounded like the most ungrateful thing she'd ever heard.

"Excuse me?" she asked, her eyes narrowing, "I just went to prison for you, and you're saying that I'm not tough enough for your taste?"

He smirked, "Oh you tough, ma. But you definitely too soft when it comes to me!"

She didn't expect that last gut punch, that accusation of a weakness which shouldn't have pissed him off.

"Is that... Is that a deal breaker to you?" she asked, breathless.

"You tell me..." he shrugged, shoulders up and hands buried deep in his pockets, "You know I got someone on the inside who takes care of the case evidences for me, right? And you just handed yourself to Turner on a fucking silver plate?"

She opened immense eyes, couldn't believe it. And _she_ was the one who screwed up here?

She shook her head, "Well, you should have told me that."

"Like you told me 'bout your rotten egg?" he meanly asked with a chuckle, and suddenly she got sick of rounding in circles with him.

"Rio, we have to stop doing that!"

He raised a daring chin at her, his face cold, "Doin' what?"

"Keeping secrets."

They defiantly stared at each other for a while before he lowered his gaze with a chuckle.

"If that was such a burden to you, why did you bail me out? I didn't expect you to. I'd have completely understood if you had not," she softly asked.

He shrugged, "We partners. It means I got your back even if you don't believe it."

She sighed. She'd know this would come, sooner or later, "About that, I... Listen, I'm sorry I accused you of tipping the feds. I know it wasn't you."

He thoughtfully chewed his bottom lip, his piercing gaze considering her, before he let out, "Al'ight. Who did it then?"

And just like that, this drowning, suffocating feeling came back. She couldn't tell him what had happened. He would... he would probably _handle it_ his way but it wasn't what she wanted. It wasn't his business. They were _her_ kids and _her_ ex-husband. Her family. And she wasn't willing to see him stepping inside of that without at least her permission. Especially at a time when they were... barely anything. Ironically she'd have killed to be able to talk about this to the Rio from before, the one who once told her that he loved her with glowing pride in his eyes. She'd have given everything to rest her head on his shoulder and forget about everything else. But she couldn't expect any of that from this cold bitch version of him.

Hence she swallowed her sobs back when she icily replied, "Let's just say I handle it."

Even from where she was standing she could feel the fury emanating from his body when he exploded, "You hear the words that come outta your mouth sometimes? You keepin' secrets? Again?"

"I don't..." she tried but he cut her.

"I don't have time for that shit. Gotta pick up my kid. But we fuckin' need to talk, Elizabeth, and not in a good way."

He strode across the living room and she watched him leave as he disappeared in the backyard without even one last glance at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter they're gonna talk. For real.


	7. Locked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Foolish love is suicide, bullets to the heart, I can't break ties _  
_Wanna light it up, say goodbye but I can't let go, oh it's not right _  
_You pull me in, skin on skin, I try to run, you pull me back again _  
_'Cause there's no end, the circle that we're in, I guess I'm yours to guide _  
_Got me where you want me on this twisted ride, bite me on the lips, a false paradise _  
_I should walk away, keep running for my life, it's taking a hold this time _  
_Baby, I'm still locked on you, got a lust, got a touch that I can't seem to lose _  
_Baby, I'm still locked on you, got a curse, yeah it hurts but I can't seem to leave _  
(song from **Welshly Arms**)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of this chapter's scenes have been written for months, and I'm so happy to finally be able to post them 🥰🥰

Technically, Rio hadn't lied. He _had_ to pick up Marcus from school and drop him at Vicky's, that wasn't something he'd made up. But he did have used that as an excuse to walk away from Elizabeth. Again. He couldn't help it. Moving mountains for her, making a fucking million dollar of clean money available within 24 hours, that he could do, without even a second thought. But facing her, remembering her lies and all the times she'd fucked with him... Nah. It was too much. He couldn't lay eyes on her without getting angry. And she didn't deserve that, not in a moment when she'd just spent the night in jail. Christ. What did she think, he _knew_ he was being hard on her while he should have thawed at least a bit. Given her a break. He'd seen the effort she'd made to make amends and everything, but he couldn't help acting harsh. Mostly because he hated the part of him that craved being too soft.

So it was better to leave before he'd be unnecessarily more hurtful. He wished things had gone differently. Maybe if they'd had some time to talk, just the two of them... Anyway. He hoped she was okay. Gretchen hadn't been able to give him much information about how things had gone with Turner. He'd noticed that Elizabeth's face was bruiseless which was at least... something. Although the feds knew how to hurt someone without leaving any visible trace. He tried to stop thinking about her when he picked up Marcus but that was an already lost cause. And Elizabeth was still occupying his mind when he dropped the kid at Vicky's.

He thoughtfully watched his ex-wife unpacking Marcus's stuff, briefly interrupting her task to rearrange her hair behind her ears, and he bit his lips with a wince. She still was the beautiful woman he'd met ten years before and that sudden memory of how much he'd loved her back then, before everything went wrong, it saddened him. He had to ask.

"Vicky?"

"Mhh?" she automatically replied, but he could tell that her mind was somewhere else, probably checking that Marcus had enough spare clothes for the week-end or something.

"Can I ask you summin'?" 

She raised her eyebrows with a surprised look. Although they were doing a pretty great job at co-parenting and agreeing on stuff about Marcus, they never talked. There weren't hard feelings between them anymore, and things were friendly. But they weren't friends. They never shared anything personal. When he'd shown up, he'd seen from her expression that she'd noticed the remaining bruises and scratches on his face, that it had somehow upset her. But she hadn't asked. That was the kind of boundary defining the state of their relationship. They would probably not even talk to each other anymore if it hadn't been for the child they had together.

"What did kill us?" he asked out of the blue, and her jaw dropped.

"Excuse me?" she said, her look clearly suggesting that he had lost his mind.

And, yeah, to be honest, he understood her reaction, they both knew what had killed them, and it wasn't something anyone could forget easily, but it wasn't what he had meant.

"I mean, what did I do wrong?" he tried again.

This time she seemed to get his point, but a mischievous smile appeared at the corners of her lips.

"I may need to have my ear checked 'cause I swear I just heard Christopher admitting that he's done something wrong!" she teased.

He nodded with a smirk, a little annoyed, but he couldn't erase that from her, that embarrassing knowledge of his worst sides, which was the only reason he could ask her for the answer he needed. And having to endure her taunts was a cheap price to pay for that.

"So?" he insisted, cocking an eyebrow.

She looked at him and suddenly her expression changed as she got it, "Oh. You like someone."

It wasn't a question. Just a statement, a sudden understanding. He silently nodded with a wince.

"It's complicated," he muttered.

"What wouldn't be with you..." she sighed, before she got back to serious, nibbling at her bottom lip as she was thinking, "It's not that simple, Christopher. What did us wrong doesn't mean it's gonna cause the same effect with her."

Rio frowned.

"Him?" Vicky asked in response, misinterpreting his reaction.

"What?"

She smiled, half-teasing, "People can change, you know, I always keep an open mind."

Rio thought about Elizabeth's voluptuous curves and slowly shook his head, "Oh it's definitely her!" he laughed.

Victoria gave him a sweet smile and there was a silence.

"If I really had to come up with something..." she thoughtfully started, "I guess I'd say that you never really opened up to me. It's hard to really know what you think... Is that helpful?" 

He slightly nodded in acceptance.

_That's the problem with you, I never know what you're thinking!_

"I dunno. Maybe?"

Vicky pursed her lips, looking for a better suggestion, "Let's do this the other way. Does she... reproach anything to you?" she eventually asked, carefully choosing her words.

Rio's body stiffened. He never felt comfortable with that kind of talk, especially with someone who knew him so well despite all the crap she could say about not knowing what he thought. But he had to get through this. For the sake of... whatever he may have with Elizabeth.

"She... she doesn't trust me," he dully said, his eyes staring at the ground, avoiding her gaze.

"Should she?" Vicky severely asked.

Rio bit his lips, forcing his eyes to met his ex-wife's. Admitting to anyone but himself how much Elizabeth mattered was... hard.

"She should. I just dunno how to make her realize it," he sadly admitted.

Vicky just stared at him for a while, probably assessing what Elizabeth meant to him in light of this heartfelt confession.

"Wow... you really care about her," she finally whispered with something sad in her eyes, something telling him that she wished he had tried this hard with her too, "You should probably start with showing her that, you know?"

Like that wasn't already everything he fucking did!

He waved his head with annoyance, his jaw ticking, "I—"

"In a way she can understand!" Vicky abruptly cut him, "Don't go with your cryptic gestures you're the only one to get."

He raised a warning eyebrow, "Watchu mean?"

"I don't know, but just... show her. Be there for her, okay? And _talk_."

Rio winced. As if these weren't the two things he hated the most about human beings interactions.

Beth didn't exactly crumble. Not immediately at least. She just watched Rio leave once again, breathless and surrounded by Annie and Ruby's concerned faces. But honestly at this point she just wanted to get some sleep. She'd process everything later. She insisted that everything would be fine, letting the girls put her into bed as her only concession. She slept for the most part of the day, and although she wasn't having the time of her life, she felt slightly better when she woke up in the middle of the afternoon. At least she was in a state to _think_, her mind released from the curtain of dumbness it had invoked as a defense mechanism ever since the arrest. But hers weren't exactly happy nor positive thoughts, so she soon ended up lying on the couch with the TV set on a minimal volume, letting a late afternoon re-run of some random reality-show wash her concerns away.

She did hear the soft sound of the backyard door being carefully closed but she didn't bother to get up nor raise her head. Even rolling her eyes at the origin of that was too much of an effort. She knew who was there, and she was too tired to fight again. Enough with the bad news. She heard him come closer until his legs appeared in her field of vision. She slowly raised her gaze, following the lines of his silhouette until she timidly met his eyes. They wordlessly stared at each other for a short instant before he diverted his gaze and carefully climbed on the couch with her, slipping his body between her and the back of the couch. His lips were brushing her hair and one of his hands made its way under her T-shirt and came to rest over her stomach.

She wasn't expecting this but she didn't say anything. The warmth of his skin on her belly was comforting, and she placed her hand on his in a gesture of appeasement, intertwining their fingers. She heard him breathe louder and her heart skipped a beat. She didn't know where that came from, but... he'd just made a move towards her. A rather timid one, for sure, she was accustomed to more dramatic and spectacular shows coming from him, but still. It was the first time he was stepping in her direction ever since their fight about the delivery. Now was her turn to prove him that she cared too. No more secrets. She took a deep breath.

"It was Dean," she softly said, blankly staring in front of her, "He manipulated my children into stealing tips from my schedules. I... I didn't want to tell you earlier because I was afraid that you would kill him for this."

She felt Rio's fingers sink a little bit harder into the flesh of her belly but he didn't say anything. There was a silence during which the only thing she could hear was his breath and the vague white noise coming from the TV before he lowly chuckled.

"Relax, honey, I ain't gonna kill your ex if you don't want me to. Although I'm surprised you didn't do it yourself already, considerin' what he did," he finally replied.

"It's more complicated than that," she whispered.

They stayed still for a while, and she just relished the warmth of his body against her back, the reassuring comfort of his arm around her waist and his breath in her neck. God she'd missed that. But she still couldn't look at him. She had failed at proving herself capable of fully trusting him the way he wanted her to, the way she _had_ to, and she wasn't sure she would be given another, umpteenth chance. She swallowed.

"I won't change in a day, you know," she muttered.

"I can wait."

His answer was so low that she briefly wondered if she hadn't actually dreamed it. She fought her tears back, forcing herself into admitting what needed to be said, her main weakness and most dreaded fear.

"And it won't help if I keep living in the constant fear of seeing you disappear every time I screw up. I need you, Rio."

"Okay." 

There was a pause before he added in a breath, "Me too."

That was already too much heartfelt opening up in a row for Beth and she felt the urge to ground back to some everyday life consideration. And Rio's comforting presence was actually soothing her angst enough to make her listen to her body and realize that her appetite was back after having been reported missing for the past two days.

"I'm starving," she suddenly said, trying to chase her building tears away, "Are you hungry?"

His hand left her belly and she felt him reach for his phone in his backpocket.

"Al'ight, I'm orderin' summin'. Does pizza sound okay for you?"

She hummed, snuggling against him while he typed some order on his phone before his hand came back on her skin. She knew that the truth talk was far from over, though. If anything, it had probably just begun. But, like... baby steps with that. She took a deep breath, trying to explain, elaborate what she'd just given him a glimpse of earlier.

"Rio, I can't... I mean, we can't just decide that we blindly trust each other no matter what. It doesn't work that way. So... I'm sorry for what I did, I am. But please don't ghost me again. It's too hard."

She probably sounded nonsensical, but he didn't seem to mind. His hand moved from her belly to her face and his pointer gently wiped the tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Then don't go with your stupid, hurtful assumptions," he softly retorted, although she knew that this wasn't meant as reproach but more as a statement, "I would never betray you, Elizabeth."

"I'm sorry I just... I never thought that I could ever hurt you," she admitted, although hearing herself out loud made her realize how silly she'd been.

"Me neither," he replied, and she wasn't sure of how to take it. But whatever.

She chuckled, "I guess we're both idiots, then."

"Yeah, that's kinda what your sister said."

She rolled her eyes at him in surprise, "You talked to her? About _this_?"

He smiled, "Well, we spent the night workin' together on your bail, what did you expect?"

She nodded, admitting his point. She pictured the weird show of Annie and Rio spending time together without ripping each other's head off within five minutes, until she eventually dared to ask.

"It wasn't a cheap bail, was it? Annie wouldn't tell me how much."

He clicked his tongue, "Nothin's ever too expensive when it comes to you, Elizabeth. That's all you need to know."

"Well, thank you, both of you. I mean it," she whispered.

Rio pressed a lingering kiss in her neck, and she shivered.

"They treated you well there?" he dully asked.

She nodded, swallowing her tears back from the memories of the night she'd spent in jail, "Yeah but... It was awful."

The ring at the doorbell didn't give her a chance to elaborate. Rio smoothly jumped out of the couch to fetch the pizzas at the front door, and she clumsily followed, heading straight to the kitchen. She uncorked a bottle of wine and shrugged at the mural clock's accusatory little hand, obstinately telling her that the evening hadn't even started yet. She poured two glasses of wine and took a sip from hers. The wine immediately set her in a lighter, playful mood, and she comfortably settled on top of the kitchen island. Rio joined her in the kitchen, dropping the food next to her before he sat on the other side of the pizza boxes. They silently ate and drank side by side for a while until Beth felt invigorated enough. She hadn't had such a peaceful and quietly normal moment with Rio in such a long time that she'd even forgotten how it felt.

She suddenly noticed the intensity of his gaze on her, making her briefly wonder if she had green stuck between her teeth or something like that.

"What?" she asked.

He didn't answer immediately. He chewed his bottom lip for a while with something looking like worry on his face, seemed to assess some unknown options and her chest tightened. It couldn't be good news. Now that they had both acknowledged that they still had unsolved trust issues, what other option but calling everything off did he have? He probably saw the distress in her eyes, and maybe that was what lead him to finally take the plunge.

"Elizabeth, there's summin' I wanna ask you... I know you said you ain't into labels, but... Imma need you to give us one. I ain't sayin' it has to be tomorrow, or next week, or next month. But at some point I want you to tell me what we are."

She almost panicked, "What? Why?"

"Cuz when you put a name on summin' it starts to exist. And once you know what you have, then you can choose to commit to it."

His eyes were scrutinizing her face with a breathtaking intensity and she had to divert her gaze from him to answer.

"So that's what you want from me? A commitment?"

The word itself was enough to have her shivering in anxiety, wishing the earth could swallow her right there for at least the next century.

"I want you to figure out what you want," he softly pleaded, with the tired voice of someone who's been repeating themselves for already too long.

"What do _you_ want?" she asked.

"Oh I think you know."

His lips stretched into a smile as he jumped down from the kitchen island to stand in front of her. His fingertips brushed the back of her hand and she dropped her slice of pizza in the box, repressing her gasp. He hadn't touched her like that for literal _ages_ and she'd never been that much aware of how she'd missed it, how she'd needed this in her personal balance.

"Member when I told you that I don't do girlfriends because of work and shit?" he softly drawled, and she hummed something that could sound like an agreement, "Well I kinda lied to you. It ain't that. It's 'cause I suck at bein' a boyfriend, you have no idea. I'm the shittiest. So just for the record I can fuck you real good, and be the best business partner you'll ever have. But don't expect me to get you them cutesy flowers and birthday cards cause it ain't what I do."

She thoughtfully bit her bottom lip, feeling the relief undoing all the knots in her chest. She lowered her eyes, staring at his fingers still lingering on her hand, before she raised her gaze back at him, met his expectation. She softly smiled.

"For twenty years, the only things that I got were flowers and fucking birthday cards," she whispered, "I don't want those anymore, I want... all the other stuff."

Something changed in his expression and he took one step closer. She parted her knees to give him some space to step in until his waist was leaning against the kitchen island's wooden surface. Their chests were almost touching and she could feel his breath over her mouth. His fingers slid away from her hand to slowly trail their way up her wrist, her bare forearm, until they met the sleeve of her top right above her elbow. His hand then quickly raised to her face, two fingers pushing her bang away from her forehead and she shivered under this familiar yet intense motion.

Timidly she raised her own hand to stroke the stubble on his cheek, carefully brushing over the bruises on his jaw, and his breath broke from her touch. He'd never let her see so clearly the effect she had on him, and it twisted her heart in a weird way as much as it really, really turned her on. His hand shifted at the back of her head to entangle in her hair and she indulged in losing herself once more in his gaze before she slightly leant forward.

His lips were on her mouth almost instantly, hungry but tender, and she grabbed his shoulder to pull him closer. He let out a muffled groan against her lips and he wrapped an arm around her waist to press her body against him. 

She went limp in his arms, already lost in their passionate kiss, when he slightly pulled away to mutter against her mouth, "Fuck, I missed your lips!"

"I missed your hands," she immediately replied with a languid voice.

He smirked, dropping open mouth kisses along the line of her jaw before one of his hand ghosted the curve of her breast, teasing, "Surely missed your tits too."

He gently sucked and bit her earlobe and she counter-attacked in a moan, "God I missed your tongue!"

He buried his face in her neck with a gasp and she heard his muffled, "Missed your eyes."

She closed them at the thought and bent her head backwards, overwhelmed with the feeling of the burning kisses Rio was pressing against her skin. Her hands came down at his hips, pressing him impossibly closer, while she parted her thighs even wider for him.

"I missed your cock," she hoarsely whispered.

He immediately straightened, catching his breath back and looking deep into her eyes as he knocked out her chances at ever winning this contest, "I missed _you_, Elizabeth. All of you."

A small sound of shock escaped from her lips, her heart racing up to a medically concerning pace. She still had one last, definitive card to play in that game though, and she was one second away from saying it when she heard the front door opening. She instantly froze and Rio jumped out of her immediate surroundings but kept a protective hand lingering in her lower back.

She thought that maybe one of the girls had forgotten something or was making sure that she was okay — there weren't so many people who had their own front door key — but she most surely didn't expect to see Dean enter the kitchen and blink at the sight of her perched on top of the kitchen island with Rio by her side.

She stared at him, astonished, and Rio's hand twitched in her back as she felt his body tensing. She was waiting for Dean to make one of his inappropriate comments about Rio but he kept his mouth shut for a while, taking in the whole situation, until the heavy silence became way too awkward.

"Hey," he tried, his mouth wincing into something that was probably intended as a comforting smile.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, her eyes narrowed, before she suddenly realized, "And where are the kids?"

Dean waved his head in a way suggesting that Beth was being pointlessly overdramatic.

"At Judith's. And since Annie told me that you got released from jail, I just wanted to, you know, check on you."

She blinked, wondering if that whole thing was real.

"Well, let me tell you that you've got some nerve to show up here after what you've done to me," she eventually replied with a cold sharpness.

She could tell that Rio was holding himself back from already jumping at Dean's throat, letting her solve this her own way, but his hand moved around her waist in a silent possessive demonstration that Dean didn't miss.

Dean dramatically pinched his nose bridge with so much embarrassment printed all over his face that it could have illustrated an acting manual.

"Listen Beth, I never thought... I mean... I'm sorry, this Turner guy promised me that you wouldn't get in trouble! I wasn't after you but he lied to me!"

Honestly, Beth was trying really hard not to get mad too soon, giving the man a chance to explain himself. But he wasn't really helping and she had to blow off some angry steam.

"Excuse me? Are you telling me that you're the victim here?" she snapped with a despising sneer.

Dean slowly shook his head, eyes serious, before he dropped, "The only victims here are the kids, Beth."

The gut punch hit her like a train and she felt something snap inside of her. Every time Dean implied that she wasn't a good mother enough she suffocated, struggling with internal guilt, and he knew it. He used her momentary incapacity to fight back to push further on that track.

"You know that you are going to lose them, right? You got arrested for _murder_! God, Beth, what happened to you?"

And the truth was, she knew that she'd loose the kids, she'd spend her whole night in jail thinking only about that. But hearing it out loud from Dean, facing that horror, it was just too much.

"Shut up!" she shouted, barely keeping her distress in control.

But Dean wasn't done with her and he played what he thought was his trump card.

"I think that you still have a chance at getting away with this, Bethie," he said, slowly walking towards her. He pointed his chin at Rio who was still silently standing by her side, "What's he doing here, huh? You know that he's the reason why you're in this situation, Beth."

"No, he's not!" she raised her voice, getting back on her feet, "You are."

Beth suddenly completely lost it. She jumped at Dean, violently shoving him backwards with a puffing cry.

"Asshole!" she panted, half-sobbing, "How could you do this to _my_ children?"

She shoved him again, and this time Dean lost his balance, his shoulder grotesquely meeting the floor, but it didn't sober Beth up from her rage. She started to kick him, ignoring his groans and setting free twenty years of frustration as she was angrily yelling reproaches between each hit.

"You blackmailed me... and you took my kids... and you faked cancer... and you cheated on me..." —she kicked his crotch at this one — "and you never listened to me... and you bankrupted us..."

She could have gone on and on all night, but it wasn't enough to relieve her. In the peak of her blind rage, she suddenly noticed Rio's golden gun resting on the kitchen counter and she grabbed it, instantly cocking it before she pointed it at Dean.

"Wow, wow, Elizabeth, calm down!" Rio suddenly intervened, grasping her waist with one arm while his other hand gently clasped around hers, silently begging her to give him the gun, "You don't wanna do that, ma," he gently added, his lips brushing her temple. 

Beth abruptly came back to her senses at this, and the shock stole her breath.

_I almost killed my ex-husband_

Was she _that_ chill with murder since she'd killed Harry, since she'd shot Rio? What had happened to the Beth who couldn't even kill someone as disgusting as Boomer? Her whole body shaking under the realization, she collapsed against Rio's chest, her angry energy flowing back and leaving her exhausted. In shock. Her hands let the gun go, and she pivoted in Rio's embrace to bury her face in his neck, her shoulders spasming with sobs.

"Tell him to leave!" she managed to whimper.

Rio waved the gun at Dean in a threatening motion, and the latter let out a terrified little squeak.

"You heard the lady," Rio icily stated, "Get the fuck outta here."

Dean quickly got back on his feet with his hands above his head and stared at Beth crying in Rio's arm for a few seconds, before his eyes heinously came back at Rio.

"I stopped her from killin' you. Next time I won't," Rio hissed with a murderous look on his face, "So you better not mess up again with her or her kids, you hear me?"

Rio sincerely hoped that his expression reflected the extent of his contempt for the man. He hated— no, this was beyond hatred, you only hate things that are worth the effort. He _despised_ Dean. To a point that almost made him want to puke. And it wasn't only because of all the hurt he'd caused to Elizabeth over the years, nor the man's intrinsic mediocrity. It was because of all the things Dean had been lucky enough to have without deserving them, some of those Rio would never get. Getting to see Elizabeth every day, for a bunch of years, sleeping in her bed every fucking night and waking up by her side every morning, seeing her pregnant with his babies, marrying her, building a life and a family together. Things that Rio didn't know he craved until he'd realized how someone else had already screwed them up. Dean was fucking stupid, it was like being gifted with the most perfect gold mine in your garden and shitting on it every day.

There lied the roots of his rage. From the way Dean had spoiled a chance that Rio would have given everything to have. He suddenly wished he had met Elizabeth earlier, and he held her tighter at the thought.

Dean fled without further ado and Rio unarmed the gun, pulling it back at his waistband before he wrapped both of his arms around Elizabeth, gently rocking her and burying his nose in her hair.

"It's okay sweetheart," he whispered, "It's over. He's gone."

She softly sniffled in response, her arms around his neck, and he dropped a comforting kiss on her temple.

"I got an idea to make you feel better," he thoughtfully said, "Just put on some outside clothes and get in the car."

She didn't ask him about what he was up to when he started the engine, but her eyebrows slightly raised when they made a first stop at Boland Motors. Rio unbuckled his seat belt and gave her a quick glance.

"Just wait here, I won't be long."

He came back, barely a few minutes later, and she couldn't repress her shocked gasp when she noticed the cardboard life-size silhouette of Dean that was stuck under his arm and which he had obviously just stolen from the dealership. She didn't even know there were still some of these, she'd thought she had thrown them all away when she'd taken control of the dealership, and this one was probably stored in a cupboard she'd forgotten about. He tossed the _thing_ on the backseat before he came back behind the wheel.

She didn't say a word for the rest of the ride, until he pulled over in front of what looked like a disaffected warehouse in a rather industrial area downtown. She watched him with astonishment as he duct taped Dean's effigy to a pole in the middle of the warehouse so the cardboard silhouette was standing vertically, like a weird life-size flat version of her ex-husband.

Rio's face wore a dark expression when he came back by her side. He pulled his gun out of his waistband and she silently watched him load it with a brand new full clip.

"Enjoy yourself," he lowly said, handing her the gun.

Trying to absorb the shock of what was happening, she managed to unglue her tongue from her palate to finally be able to speak.

"Are you sure that—" she started.

He cut her, "Just do it."

She took the gun, quite unsure of what to do with it — not that she didn't understand what Rio expected from her, that was pretty clear, but still it felt utterly weird. She straightened her shoulders and put some space between her feet, just like he had taught her in their old days, before things got out of control. She pointed the gun at the silhouette but that felt... _silly_. It was like trying to kill a cartoon character, it didn't really make any sense.

She pulled the trigger once, experimentally, felt the recoil, heard the sound. Her shot wasn't precisely aiming at some part of the paper body standing twenty steps away from her, but cardboard-Dean's left hand got disintegrated in the process. She sighed, deeply. That had been, well, definitely super weird, but a thrill of excitement had run through her belly when she'd pulled the trigger.

She gave it another shot. And then another. And then she couldn't stop anymore, methodically destroying Dean's effigy, bullet after bullet with a savage look on her face. At some point the gun emitted a disappointingly empty clicking noise, and Rio wordlessly handed her another clip, his hand almost magically appearing from behind her.

When she finished the second clip, she glanced aside, looking for a third one, but she only heard Rio's protestation.

"Nuh huh, it's already been two full clips, Elizabeth."

She handed him the gun then, before she decidedly walked at what remained of cardboard-Dean. The bullets had totally destroyed the upper body, but its lower half was still partially hanging to its pole. With furious screams, she tore every remain of it into small parts, angrily kicking at the biggest pieces of cardboard until her rage ran out of fuel, leaving her panting and fighting frustrated sobs.

The extent of her plunder scared her and she suddenly got painfully aware of Rio's presence behind her, probably all judgmental already. Without looking at him, she stiffened, defiantly straightening her shoulders.

"You think I'm a monster?" she hoarsely spat, eager to get over with this conversation.

Rio slowly swallowed, his jaw ticking. He had to admit that Elizabeth scared him a bit. And not only for her fury, but also for the state it turned her into afterwards. He could tell that she was seconds away from her second breakdown of the night, just like the one she'd had before he'd asked Dean to leave. And he wasn't even sure that she wouldn't go through another upsurge of violence in the next few minutes. He'd thought that letting her in his world would wake up the wild cat sleeping inside of her. But the truth was, he'd ended up with a fucking angry panther. He slowly closed the gap between them and timidly landed one hand in the middle of her back, feeling the tension in her muscles loosen a bit at his touch.

"I think you got a lotta anger inside you, ma," he muttered, "And you need to get control over it."

He stroked her back until he had an arm wrapped around her shoulders, and he felt her lean against him and give up on her internal fight. He held her tighter, wishing he could stop the shaking of her body with only his loving embrace. They stayed still for a while until she seemed to calm down a bit.

"Wanna get outta here?" he softly asked, and she nodded.

Back in the car, he hesitated, though. 

"D'you need some time alone to figure all this shit out?"

She opened giant scared eyes at him and shook her head. She seemed to be in a fucking bad place, and her distress moved him deeply.

He softly nodded, "My place or your place, then?"

Beth lowered her eyes, considering. She shivered at the idea of coming back to the dark empty house. Not when her every recent memory there was rather traumatic. She didn't want to be in a place where Rio's blood, resulting from Turner's coercion, and Dean's blood she'd shed herself earlier in her own breakdown were still visible, waiting for her to clean the mess.

She raised her swollen eyes at Rio, "Could we go to your place? Please?" she asked with a tiny voice.

He chewed his bottom lip and slightly nodded before starting the engine. They didn't exchange a word during the whole drive. 

Her mood seemed to have slightly improved by the time they made it to the apartment though. She excused herself to the shower and he fixed her a drink in the meantime. She came back, smoking hot with only a towel wrapped around her body, and she silently accepted the drink he was handing her with a grateful nod.

He cleared his throat, "Wanna talk 'bout it?"

She gave him a sad half-smile, "You think I should?"

"Oh you definitely _need to_ talk, ma, the question is, now is a good time for you?"

She let herself crash on the couch and she waited for him to have joined her before she took a deep breath.

"It's just..." she started, "After you came back from California, after I killed Harry, I thought that things would finally be... okay. But everything has been falling apart ever since and I..." — she couldn't hold her tears back and quickly swiped them with the back of her hand in an annoyed motion — "I went to jail, and Ruby's not speaking to me anymore, and you got beaten up, and Dean manipulated my children, but _I_ am the one who made this possible. I created this situation. I'm an awful person, and an awful mother," she stated with a broken voice and her sadness was the most heartbreaking thing Rio had ever seen.

She was shaking and he could tell that she was making a huge effort at trying to open up, show him parts of herself she wasn't proud of. This kind of shit would usually make him too uncomfortable to not start teasing and being a jerk, but he didn't want to do that around her anymore. He took her hand in his, tenderly pressing his lips on her palm.

"Listen, darlin'. What Carman did to you is unforgivable but it ain't your fault. I know it's hard, but in this lane you can't preserve your kids from everythin', no matter how hard you try. Marcus got to see his dad on a hospital bed, and he knew it was because I got shot."

Okay, he shoulda kept his fucking mouth shut on this one. This probably wasn't the cleverest example to give her, judging from her eyes filled with tears again. For fuck's sake, think, Christopher!

"See? I'm even awful to kids that aren't mine!" she replied with a weak ironic smile, trying to hold her tears back.

"Nah, you ain't awful, Elizabeth," he tenderly replied, but she vigorously shook her head.

"You don't understand!" she protested, "I _was_ going to kill Dean, I'm horrible."

She stared at her own thoughts for a few seconds, seemed to internally fight against herself until she eventually came to a decision and raised her eyes back at him.

"I never told this to anybody," she started in a very low, ashamed voice, "But you know, when you shot him back then... When the doctor told me that he wasn't dead, I... For one second I swear I was... _disappointed_. The girls don't even know," she added with pleading eyes.

He'd never thought that he could possibly love her more, but he fucking did in that instant. He didn't know what to say to her, though, but she didn't give him time to think of an appropriate answer as she spoke again.

"It's just... I don't know who I am anymore, I'm lost," she admitted.

The pads of his fingers stroked the thin skin at her wrist. He silently waited, letting her elaborate whatever she needed to say.

"I mean I know that I can't have it all, but everything is so... messed up, I don't even know where to start, how to choose. And now I'm facing a trial for a murder that I did commit, and I'm so fucking scared!"

Her voice had risen to a higher pitch towards the end and she was panting, barely repressing her sobs anymore. He ran his thumbs along the inside of her forearm in a soothing motion.

"You think I ain't scared too, Elizabeth?" he confessed in a breath.

She looked surprised, letting out a nervous chuckle, "You have no right to be scared, you are supposed to be the one who's always ten steps ahead of everyone!"

He sadly shook his head, "Well this time I ain't."

And he meant it. Things had seriously gone off the rail lately, mostly because — or thanks to — her. He'd always pictured himself as someone who already had the answer before anyone asked the question, but he'd never anticipated the chaos his life had become ever since he'd let her in. But it was worth it. Every second of it.

For some reason, she didn't exactly seem reassured by his absolute lack of certainty, though.

"Then how am I supposed to—" she started, but he cut her.

"Shhhh, we'll figure it out, Elizabeth I promise. Together. Just... not tonight, okay?"

His mouth left a trail of kisses from her wrist to her shoulder and she shivered from his touch, from the way he'd been there for her the whole time since the moment he'd come back to her house. She turned her face to look at him and he used that opportunity to give her lips a small peck.

"Why did you come back after leaving this morning? What changed?" she whispered.

He smirked, "It's just sometimes I realize I been actin' stupid."

He started to kiss her face, slowly trailing down to her jaw, then her neck, while she was still processing all the things they'd said to each other and it suddenly escaped from her lips before she even realized it.

"I love you."

The first time she'd said it had been one of the scariest moments of her life, she'd felt exposed, naked under the scrutiny of his gaze, and saying the words had been an excruciating struggle with herself. But this time it just felt right. Obvious. Something that made her happy, and warmed her up inside, just from saying it. The look in his eyes just before his mouth crashed on hers as a reaction stole her breath and for a moment she just lost herself in their kiss, grabbed his shoulders to pull him closer. His hands worked on the knot she'd made with the towel around her chest until he could part the sides and unveil her naked body, his gaze expressing nothing but absolute awe.

He left her mouth to wrap his tongue around her nipples, having her moaning and arching her back, but he suddenly pulled away to grab the back of her knees and lift her legs on the couch, settling her on her back. She managed to slip her legs on both sides of his waist, trying to entrap him between her thighs to pull him back at her but he resisted, settling his head next to her lower belly and dropping teasing kisses on the inner side of her thighs until she let out swooning sighs of anticipation.

"I wanna make you feel so damn good, ma," he hoarsely whispered.

She responded with a throaty gasp as his tongue slowly, so slowly, brushed her clit with the touch of a feather. Her body jolted as if electrocuted under his attention, and soon she turned into a moaning and sighing mess as he dutifully ate her out on his couch until she came with his name on her lips.

She pulled at the collar of his shirt, tugging his face back up to kiss him but soon her hands were rubbing the fabric of his sleeves with frustrated annoyance.

"You're wearing too many clothes," she pouted.

He helped her to undress him, her hands clumsy with a hurry he didn't understand until two blue eyes deeply stared at him with desperation.

"I want you inside of me. So bad," she articulated in a stammering hiss that drove him crazy.

He quickly got rid of every remaining clothing item he still wore before he crashed on top of her, surrendering to her arms and legs wrapped around him and pulling him closer like a hungry octopus. Well, at least a kind of octopus he'd want to fuck.

She arched her back to meet his hips, angling herself and urging him to take her and he, well... how could one say no to that?

They stayed pressed against each other for a very long time in the afterglow, limbs intertwined and skins sticky with sweat. After what seemed an eternity of breathing each other in, she shifted under him.

"I guess I could use another shower," she whispered, "Wanna come?" she asked with a naughty smile.

She decided to take his resulting throaty noise as an agreement, and she extracted herself from their embrace to make a beeline to the bathroom. He joined her within a few seconds as soon as she got the water running, his hands at her hips and his lips on hers. Her palms pressed his shoulders, stroked his nape, and they kissed for a long time under the shower jet.

When their mouths parted and his stubble grazed her skin as his cheek was sliding along hers, she barely heard his murmur above the pattering of water splashing all around them.

"I love you too, Elizabeth."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked the truth talk (and Dean getting what he'd asked for)!!
> 
> I think we'll have another 2-3 chapters max until the end of this story. And then S3 will probably turn me into a mess (only three weeks lefts, I'm SO NOT READY 😱😱😱😱😭😭😭😭)


	8. No Mercy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _What's that you say, oh you wanna play _  
_But you know you'll lose, can't afford the stakes _  
_Cause I told you time ...and time again _  
_It's best you leave now 'fore you meet your end _  
_Cause I like what I like, got what I need _  
_Walk through your life _  
_Take what I want and leave you on your knees _  
_I see those eyes, they sure look like thirsty _  
_Go ahead and try, cause you don't deserve me _  
_just step aside, won't let you hurt me _  
_Cause I do what I like... No mercy! _  
(Song from **Ndidi O**)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *S3 trailer spoiler, if you haven't watched it yet, you can skip this note and head straight to the story*
> 
> ***************************
> 
> Before we say anything, can we talk about that kiss that literally no-one asked for????😱😱😱😱 I need support right now...😭😭😭
> 
> ***************************
> 
> *End of S3 trailer spoiler*

Beth woke up in the familiar shelter of Rio's arms. He was still asleep, his face buried in her neck, and for a moment she just relished this feeling of domestic normality she'd never thought she could have with him one day. Then the memories of the evening and the following sleepless hours she'd spent processing everything fell on her like an emotional hangover and she panicked internally. She'd exposed herself so much, and in such an extensively scary way that it ashamed her. She must have slightly shaken or startled at the thought, because Rio softly groaned, his palms squeezing her flesh as he was emerging from his sleep.

His lips dropped small kisses in the nape of her neck and he grunted a gentle, "Mornin'."

She pivoted in his arms to face him, took in his smile, his warm gaze, his eyes sparkling with the joy of waking up by her side, and she instantly calmed down. He was still there, he still wanted her. She'd showed him her darkest sides and most shameful secrets, and he... hadn't walked away. She smiled.

"Morning, Christopher."

He frowned.

"Hey, why you callin' me this? You always sound super serious when you do that, like you got bad news or some shit!"

She'd actually said it in a gentle whisper, enjoying every syllable of his name, but his childlike protest amused her.

"Well, I do have bad news," she nodded with a perky smile, "I'm being accused of murder, remember?"

He complained like a grumpy teenager who'd be asked to get out of bed too early, "Oh, not that shit again! I told you we would sort this out so could you just chill, ma?"

As if to prove his point, he cupped one of her breasts with his hand, his thumb rubbing her nipple until her breath wasn't that much even anymore.

"What happened to your _'I'm scared too, Elizabeth'?_" she giggled, performing a quite poor rendition of his accent.

He pouted, refusing to dignify her mocking question with an answer, his lips building a trail of kisses from her temple to her neck instead. She tried to stay focused on her problem, although her eyes slightly widened when she felt his tongue running against her pulse.

"It's easy for you to be chill, you're not the one risking it!" she managed to complain.

He immediately interrupted his ministrations, straightening his head to stare into her eyes, a mocking smirk adorning his lips.

"Oh baby, believe me, I been riskin' so much more than you since before them kids of yours were even born!" he retorted. Pride flashed in her eyes and he suddenly added, "Ain't no challenge."

She shook her head, "You're unbelievable! Maybe sometimes I should take cockiness lessons from you!"

He pulled on a solemn expression as he lowly said, "I dunno whatchu talkin' 'bout, sweetheart."

"Come on! You _know!_" she protested, throwing a pillow at him.

He caught her wrists in his hands and they gently struggled for a short period of time until he managed to pin her hands above her head, settling himself on top of her.

"You gonna let me take good care of you or you still wanna shrink out your problems?" he asked, his lips brushing hers in a teasing motion that had her hoarsely gasping.

"I—"

The sudden feeling of his cock rubbing against her clit shut her up. He cocked one eyebrow.

"So you were sayin'?" he asked, playfully grinding into her to intensify the friction.

"We... can discuss it later," she panted, her hips already grinding back, searching for contact.

But he wouldn't let her get away with this so easily. Of course he wouldn't. Things never got to be _easy_ with him.

"You sure you deserved it?" he whispered, his lips sliding on her cheeks and heading towards her neck.

She rolled her eyes, "Oh, cut the crap and just fuck me!"

It wasn't that she disliked his playful mood, but it seemed that Rio was incapable of stopping himself once he'd started acting like a teasing asshole. And the ease with which he always managed to set her on fire in approximately thirty seconds was excessively and annoyingly unfair.

"Jeez, what happened to your manners?" he retorted, feigned indignation printed on his face.

God, was he annoying!

"Fuck me, _please_," she said with an exasperated eye roll, and before she knew it he was inside of her, a little desperate noise escaping his throat at the feeling of how wet she was.

She'd get her revenge for his shameless teasing later, though. She was still taking a mental note about it when the aching pleasure of his teeth around her nipple brought her back to the present with a sharp cry.

"How 'bout I make you some breakfast, huh?" he asked, later.

Snuggled in his arms, her face resting against his chest, she kissed his tanned skin before she raised her head, her eyes sparkling with excitement and a childlike smile on her lips, "With funny-shaped pancakes?"

"If you wanna," he chuckled.

"But I'll make the dough," she decided with a non-negotiable wave of her eyebrow.

The idea of letting Rio cook for her without helping at all was... okay, the idea of letting _anyone_ cook for her was kind of impossible to fathom.

"Only if you let me do the dishes," he counter-attacked with a smirk, and Beth thought that Annie would have probably already emitted barfing noises by then at the cheesiness of that particular negotiation. But she just... she _needed_ this, she needed this peaceful bloom of trust, that bubble they felt safe enough inside to make fun of their own competitiveness.

"We got a deal," she nodded.

"Cool."

"Have you ever noticed that every time I spend the night at your place I've either murdered or attempted to murder someone?" she asked several pancakes later, her fork enthusiastically digging into the pile of food still standing in the plate.

Rio chuckled, "You only slept here twice, Elizabeth, I doubt it provides accurate statistics."

She lowered her eyes.

"I said _spend the night_, not sleep. And I mentioned _your place_, not specifically... here," she dully answered with a gesture of her hand that seemed to take in the space around her, and ooooh, right.

He swallowed.

"Still makes only three," he pointed out, "Why, you considerin' extendin' your track record?"

"Actually I was more thinking about changing that pattern," she softly said.

He smiled. Like a genuine, truly happy smile. Which he quickly hid under layers of teasing irony, though.

"Does this mean that you wanna come over more often? Cause I'd be... cool with that," he shrugged.

"I was going to say that I should stop trying to kill people, but... yeah. That too," she dreamily nodded, her eyes going a little watery, and God, why did she have to be so emotional every time she experienced Rio's softness?

"Sounds wise. I think that you've got enough on your plate right now 'bout killin' people," he teased.

She looked at him with expectations as he got up from his bar stool — because _obviously_ his kitchen had to be furnished with bar stools — and walked around the counter to land a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"I talked with Gretchen 'bout your options," he started, "Course the best thing would be for 'em to drop the charges, but with Turner in the house... I don't see that comin'. But since the only thing they have against you so far is your bullshit confession, she says that we can go back and forth for a while with that. She knows a bunch of lawyers who are really good at delayin' procedures. This could take decades before you get an actual trial."

She shook her head. Rio's suggestion was the rational thing to do but... she didn't want that. She kept thinking about the promise she'd made to herself that morning under the trees when she'd taken back her own fate from Demon's hands. The rage she was in from being everyone's toy. How she'd sworn that it wouldn't happen again, that her tormentors would pay for their actions. And well, her wish had been granted, for some of them at least. Harry and his boys had gotten what they deserved. Rio... okay, his was a special status, but she'd given him quite a hard time too before she'd admitted to herself that she didn't want to hurt him anymore. And Dean had... recently met with her revengeful side as well.

But still. It had all kept happening, people — mostly men — fooling her, shamelessly using everything they could to hurt and destroy her. And she was sick of it.

"No," she firmly started, "I'm not doing that. There are boundaries. He's targeted my family, he doesn't get away with this!"

Rio chuckled, seemingly amused from her cold anger, "Honey, as much as I despise Turner, I think that the idea of usin' your kids was more likely Carman's so—"

"I wasn't talking about that," she cut him, her chin raised in a silent challenge, "Although you're right, it does count too."

He frowned, "Then what—"

She shook her head as if what she was trying to say was obvious, "He hurt _you_, for God's sake! He beat you up to get to me, and there will be consequences. I want him on his knees for that."

There was a sudden, heavy silence.

Rio swallowed before he slowly articulated with a strange voice, "Did you just say that I was family to you?"

Beth intensely blushed, suddenly realizing that in the enthusiastic peak of her revengeful fury she'd let out stuff she'd never thought she could ever...

"_Technically_, maybe," she carefully replied, "But I didn't really... I mean it was just..."

Rio mercilessly watched her entangling herself in rambling explanations with an ironical smirk before he eventually threw her an opening, "He did go after your kids through Carman, though, and this is your family."

"Yes! Exactly!" she exclaimed in absolute bad faith with a relieved smile.

He smiled back at her. It was a big deal. For both of them. A promise of a future maybe even more intimate than _I love you_, and neither of them was ready to absorb it yet. But instead of freaking out and running away they'd just... both acknowledged that it was too soon before moving on. Okay, he hadn't resisted a bit of teasing but he'd stopped the instant he'd seen she was getting really uncomfortable. He took a step closer.

"You goddamn hot when you get 'em mama bear claws out, you know that?" he drawled, his eyes burning literal holes in her skin.

She tried to keep a poker face, "Yeah?"

"Yeah," he lowly groaned.

They stared at each other for a while, keeping the desire on hold until he shrugged.

"You know it won't be easy takin' him down, yeah?" he asked, jerking his chin at her.

She blushed, "Actually, I've been giving this a lot of thoughts lately, and... I might be onto something but maybe it's nothing. I... I just need to dig it up a little bit more on my own before I tell you," she stammered before she suddenly panicked, "I'm not keeping secrets from you, okay? It's just... I don't want to create expectations."

Baby steps with that trusting each other stuff. She wasn't ready to endure his endless sarcasms if her idea turned out to be nothing but useless dust.

"Do you... Do you trust me?" she asked in a tiny voice.

He slowly nodded with a sigh, "I can try. Just be careful, Elizabeth, okay? His bosses have him on the hook and your case is his last chance at not makin' a fool of himself, so I'm afraid he'll do whatever shit it'll take to send you away."

"Okay," she whispered back, relieved, "I guess I should start working on it right now, then. The sooner the better. But there is one thing I need to do first."

He mischievously looked at her, "Me?"

She rolled her eyes, "Okay, that's two things, then!"

She stayed behind the steering wheel for a long time, parked in front of the building. After some work thing on his side had eventually forced Rio and she to postpone their fourth — or was it fifth? — fuck of the day, he'd asked one of his boys to give her a ride home. She'd spent the whole drive wondering if they would ever be able to stop touching each other all the time if real life wasn't knocking at the door once in a while. Once she'd gotten home, she'd changed clothes and spent some time on the phone with Judith, setting arrangements for picking up the kids a few days later. Considering where she and Dean had left things, dealing with his mother was almost a happy ride compared to the horror of actually _talking_ to him.

Then she'd driven straight to that building which she knew housed the small and perfectly legit headquarter of the bakery business she'd started, back in the days when she believed that Rio was dead. That business Ruby was now in charge of. She'd been giving it a lot of thoughts during the night. After Rio had fallen asleep in her arms, she'd basically looped over all the things she'd told him, trying to figure some priorities out.

_ Ruby's not speaking to me anymore_

She hadn't realized how painful it felt before she'd said it out loud in front of him. Talking to Ruby _was_ a priority.

Her hands clutching around the wheel, she peered at the entrance for several minutes. She knew her friend was there at this time of the day, managing factory schedules and planning deliveries — all new skills she'd learnt from working for Rio by the way — just like she knew that they badly needed to talk. But God, wasn't this the hardest thing ever!

Shaky with apprehension, she forced herself into getting out of the car and followed the hallway until Ruby's office. The room was pretty small, it wasn't like they could afford a huge rent after all, but Ruby had insisted that working at home was way too distracting for her, so. Beth liked the idea of having started something important enough to have its own _office_, it made her feel proud of herself. Legit in her lane. That lane, at least.

"Hey," Beth softly said, her knuckles rapping at the open wooden door to announce herself.

Ruby raised her head from the pile of accountancy documents she was working on and a sad expression appeared on her face.

"Hi," she lowly replied.

"Can we talk?"

Ruby carefully peered at her before she slightly nodded with a shrug. Beth closed the door behind her, unwilling to expose their issues to the whole building and she followed Ruby's invitation to sit down on the small couch settled in one angle of the office. She put her purse on her lap, giving herself an opportunity to busy her hands, her fingers fidgeting at the leathery edges. She opened her mouth but Ruby cut her.

"Before you say anything. I'm sorry. For... not giving you a chance to explain. And I know that I should support you, as a friend, and I swear that I'm trying. But I'm not gonna lie," she rolled her eyes with a wince, "It's freaking complicated."

"I know," Beth gently replied, "And I'm sorry that you found out this way."

"That's... literally the last thing I'm concerned about," Ruby stated with a giant wave of her eyebrows.

There was a silence.

"I'm not asking you to support what I did, or absolve me for this," Beth slowly started, her eyes blankly staring in front of her, "But I wish you could just accept that this is a part of who I am now."

That she had also given proper thoughts during the night. Admitting in front of Rio that she didn't know who she was had actually helped her figure some stuff out, understand what was holding her back from fully embracing the path she'd chosen. And Ruby's opinion of her was a part of it.

"Beth, you killed a _human being_. How am I supposed to accept that?"

"I killed an asshole who used to get off from asking his boys to sexually assault me," Beth rectified in a matter-of-fact tone, "Incidentally, he also tried to kill me."

Still avoiding each other's eyes, they stayed still until Ruby asked, "Did it help you overcome?"

"You know what? It actually gave me some closure," Beth realized with a gentle smile.

Ruby sighed.

"Let's say I've got tickets for Beyoncé," she started, "And I really want to go with my best friend. But I don't want to bring a murderer there, like, it's Queen B's show. What am I supposed to do?"

"Maybe I could leave during intermission?"

"And miss the encore? That would be cruel. And I'm talking like, _inhuman_ cruel," she punctuated with a nod.

Beth chuckled and comfortably settled her head against the couch headrest, her eyes on the ceiling until realization slowly sank in. She took a deep breath.

"If it's a take it or leave it situation, then it means that you have to choose," she whispered.

"Between the killer and the best friend? You know that bitch always wins," Ruby smirked.

Beth timidly laid a hand on Ruby's forearm, "I'm really sorry for putting you through this."

"I know."

They stayed silent until Ruby eventually turned her head and waited for Beth to meet her eyes.

"Are you sure that this whole thing is _your_ choice?" she asked.

"If you are suggesting that Rio talked me into this—"

"Talking isn't exactly the activity I had in mind," Ruby cut her with a smirk, "But you got what I meant."

Beth shook her head, "It's not... it's not what happened. I asked for it. He... he actually tried to talk me into _not_ doing it."

Ruby sighed in some sort of relief.

"Not that I'm implying that Rio doesn't respect your wishes, but... I just wanted to make sure that you are choosing a life and not the man who'll drag you in this life. Would you still follow this path if he wasn't in the picture?"

"I don't know," Beth honestly admitted, "But I couldn't live a normal life either. I wouldn't be happy. I was already miserable before all of this even started!"

"So are you happy now?"

Beth deeply exhaled. With all the anxiety of the past few weeks, the bad news, Rio's coldness and her own doubts, she may have forgotten how she felt. How deep down, she'd never been happier in her life, in a very counterintuitive, twisted way. Because no matter the shitstorm that would hit her, she knew that she belonged there, despite how reluctant she was to clean the mess. It was still something she could understand, something which felt right. She loved being a mother, and she loved her kids. She enjoyed baking for school events and being an active part of her own, small community. But there had always been something missing in this low, perfectly ordered life. Something odd. Countless mornings she had woken up thinking, _"Okay, but this cannot be it, this cannot be the whole picture."_ Just like kids vaguely know that growing up will open new doors of adulthood to their horizon, she'd kept waiting for the missing part, refusing to admit that her life was supposed to keep going on this narrow track until the day she'd die. She had it all, back then, but she'd never felt more incomplete.

Crime had opened this door she couldn't find. Soon it had become an addiction she'd always fall back into despite her own protests every time things were over. Ultimately it was the reason why she'd changed her mind in the last minute and agreed to be Rio's partner when she was about to decline his offer and do the reasonable thing instead. She'd had doubts ever since she'd taken that decision, more than once, but she'd never had regrets. Because this life, this path she'd agreed on, it had brought her a peace of mind she'd never felt before, soothed the insecurities spinning under her calm surface. Grounded her where she used to stumble.

She shook her head, dissipating the memories, before she openly stared back at Ruby with a soft smile, "I know it sounds crazy, but... yeah. I am."

Ruby raised her eyebrows, clearly suggesting that Beth had some mental health issues she'd need to address someday, but she eventually shrugged, wrapping an arm around Beth's shoulders and pulling her closer.

"What do you want me to reply to that?" she asked, discouraged, and from her tone, Beth wasn't sure of whether Ruby was talking to her or, most likely, to God.

Beth put an arm around Ruby's waist, the hug saying more than all the words they could ever exchange.

"Thank you for coming over yesterday morning. It means a lot."

"You'd spent the night in _jail_! I've seen what those cells look like, I couldn't let you deal with it on your own!" Ruby exclaimed with a retrospective shiver.

"Are you still my friend?" Beth whispered against Ruby's hair after a silence.

"You're an idiot!" Ruby protested. They hugged for a long time before she sententiously let out, "I missed you, B."

"Me too," Beth replied, her voice a little muffled as she was trying not to cry.

"Are we going to talk about the fact that I'll miss you even more when you will be serving your time in prison or is it too soon for that?"

Beth loosened her grip on Ruby and slowly straightened to face her, "I'm working on it, actually. Do you think that you could come over tonight? We could talk about this with Annie... And then we'll watch _Real Housewives_, I promise. I mean we've got, what, at least three episodes to catch up with, right?"

"If you could let me finish working on that schedule instead of distracting me with your goddam happiness issues, maybe I'll be able to make it on time!" Ruby taunted her, widening her eyes and pretending to be exasperated.

Beth smiled as she got up, "I hate you."

"I hate your face!"

They grinned at each other before Beth closed the door.

Ruby deeply exhaled. Twenty-five years and so many memories that she couldn't count them. She wouldn't even be able to decide herself on a top ten of the most important moments of their friendship. She was the first person Beth had called every time she'd gone into labor, even Dean had come second. She'd been there when Beth's mother had died. Just like Beth had held her hand at her own father's funeral and the births of Sara and Harry. Beth had been a part of her life for so long that she'd never thought she could ever imagine it without her. That was at least until a few weeks before. Until she'd found out about how much her friend had changed without her noticing it, and the amount of stuff she'd hidden from her, and probably from Annie too. It had hurt. She hadn't been herself in the following days. She knew that Stan had noticed he unusual jumpiness, but he hadn't asked. For the first time, she'd considered the idea of Beth not being a part of her life anymore, and she just. She couldn't. And she could tell that Beth had been miserable too. They both needed each other, and at this point, Ruby wasn't even sure anymore that there still existed a moral boundary which could tear them apart. Hence the only thing that still mattered was that they both get to be happy. And free, if that was still possible, that would be nice, thanks. She shook her head. Screw moral and ethics. At this point, both Beth and Annie probably belonged to Hell already, and spending eternity without them wasn't worth it anyway.

"Sooooo," Annie started, pouring herself another glass of wine. Ruby and her were sitting side by side in Beth's living room, staring at her as she'd just finished unveiling her intentions about Turner, "This, Beth, was truly inspirational speech. But, as much as I'm totally on board with you about that whole, like, taking down the patriarchy thing, I mean, how are you gonna do that? Like I'm talking about the deets and whatnot here, are we more going for stakeouts, or sending the boys do the dirty work..."

Beth ran her palm across her face, casting an exasperated glance at Annie.

"Okay, first of all, Annie, could you stop talking like a crime lord for one minute? Just because you worked with Rio for a couple of hours doesn't mean you're one of them now."

"Damn, you wouldn't even let me have that! And it was a whole night!" Annie raised her pointer with a furious furrow of her eyebrows.

"That's a real question, though," Ruby intervened, "I mean, I'll be more than happy to help you taking Turner down after all he's put Stan and I through, but seriously, what do you have against him?"

Beth exhaled. There lied that problem. She didn't have anything against Turner. She _knew_ that he was corrupted, hired gangbangers to kill and molest people for him, and generally showed a vague notion of respect of the law, but she had absolutely no evidence of it. And even if she had, those wouldn't weight much against her own, scathing murder charges.

"I... You know what, it's not the point. Taking him down for corruption or whatever is useless anyway. It won't erase the murder charges I'm facing. So there is only one option left here."

She dramatically paused, waiting for one of the girls to throw the answer, but they just both stared at her with giant expecting eyes.

"Oh my God, I have to frame him for Harry's murder!" Beth eventually exclaimed, raising her hands as if it were obvious.

"Oh no," Ruby muttered under her breath.

Annie pursed her lips and crossed her arms over her chest, thinking so hard that Beth could almost visualize the cogs and gears spinning in her brain.

"How?" she eventually snapped, "I mean, Beth, it's not a bad idea _per se_, but you can't put a murder on someone else without serious evidence. That's the whole point of... justice," Annie added with an admiring raise of her eyebrows at her own wisdom. 

Beth took a deep breath. She felt ridiculous, and crazy.

"Okay, maybe it's nothing. But when he questioned me the other night, he got... angry at some point. He tried to break me... With words," she immediately added to the girls' horrified looks, "And among other things, he said that he knew that I wasn't home the night Harry got killed, because he was _here_. So this got me thinking. If he was playing obsessive spy or something around my house, does he... does he have an alibi for the night?"

"What the fuck was he doing there anyway? That's weird," Annie pointed out.

"I don't know," Beth admitted, "But guys, here is what I was thinking about."

It took her longer than she'd thought to expose her whole plan. Ever since her night in jail, she'd spent every spare minute of free thinking she'd had working on it, polishing every angle. But there still had remained one major flaw, until Rio had unknowingly given her the last piece of the puzzle during their morning talk. She wasn't only fueled with revenge. If she wanted to build something lasting, she needed to get rid of the permanent threat Turner represented, and become watertight. For her own safety. For Rio's.

"So what do you think?" she eventually asked.

Annie and Ruby were staring at her with their eyes wide open. Annie shifted uneasily.

"Did you tell Rio about that?" she eventually broke the silence.

"Not yet," Beth replied with a warning glance at her sister, "But I'm going to. I just wanted to tell you first and have your opinion. I... I mean if you guys think it's totally stupid, I'll just forget about it," she added, blushing.

"Whooo, looks like someone got the feels!" Annie joked.

"I don't think it's stupid," Ruby slowly said, "I think it's brilliant. For what we know, the man is super shady. All we have to do is dig in the right place. But it's risky. And you need to check his alibi before you start anything. Do you really think you can do that without him noticing?"

"Oh, I was thinking about sending Mary Pat."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Annie asked with a tiny voice, "I mean, the stakes are really high this time and—"

Beth sighed, "Annie, I know you don't trust her, but guess what: of all the people, she was the most likely to betray me, and she didn't. Unlike Dean," she angrily added under her breath.

"About that, can we get back to the part where you kicked his ass? I can't believe Deansie finally got what he's been asking for all those years," Annie giggled with a praising look on her face.

Beth smiled. The girls impressed expressions when she'd told them about how she'd handled Dean had really warmed her up inside. Okay, she conceded, they had freaked out a little bit too when she'd mentioned the almost lethal gun incident, but still. And it felt good to be able to tell them everything again. These were precious moments she shouldn't waste. Just in case.

"Yeah, he did ask for it, right?" Beth giggled, "Hey you know what, I don't want to bother you girls with my criminal issues. Let's watch some trash TV instead, okay?" she suddenly said, "Because maybe... maybe I'm just fooling myself with this, and... they don't allow girls' night, you know, _there_..." she added almost inaudibly.

"Oh don't worry sweetie, we'll find something," Annie patted her forearm with false assurance, "We'll ask for a conjugal visit if that's what it takes!"

The three of them snorted at the thought before they snuggled against each other on the couch. Beth turned the TV on, and they spent the rest of the night wrapped in blankets and drinking more wine while yelling at reality-shows dumb characters.

They were already past four episodes and as many bottles of wine when Beth's phone buzzed in her pocket. She blankly stared at her screen, illuminated with a text from a blocked number.

_You okay?_

She smiled, remembering how much she'd freaked out the last time they'd texted about personal stuff, the day after Harry's death. She quickly texted back.

_Yeah. With the girls_

The answer came pretty quickly.

_Miss me?_

She rolled her eyes at his narcissism. She did miss him already though, but she'd rather die than admitting it point blank.

_Miss me?_

She was actually proud of her mirroring response, but his reply felt like a lash at her every nerve ending.

_Want me to come over and show you how much I do?_

She couldn't repress a small whimper, fortunately covered with the TV and Annie's rambling about the general inconsistency of reality-show characters. The simple thoughts of his hands on her was achingly burning. But she wouldn't let him turn her world upside down so easily.

_Do you think that you deserve it?_

She greedily bit her lips, enjoying her revenge from his morning teasing.

_That's for you to tell, darling_

"Beth, what's with your phone?" Annie suddenly groaned, "Ramona is about to tell Tinsley about that text from Luan! Finally! It is happening! Focus, girl!"

"Sorry," Beth muttered, pulling the phone back under her blanket.

But she felt it vibrating again in her hand a few minutes later and she discretely peered at the screen.

_?_

She sighed, uncertain. She didn't want to rush her girls' night to be with Rio. On the other hand, they were almost caught up with the latest episode, and neither of them seemed willing to uncork the last bottle of wine that had survived the night's slaughter and was still standing on the coffee table. Cursing her own weakness, she typed from under the cover.

_Ok_

The girls left almost two hours later, though. Beth hadn't heard from Rio ever since her last text, and she was barely keeping her eyes open at this point. But the vision of him casually lying on her bed when she entered her bedroom immediately woke her up.

"How long have you been here?" she asked.

He smoothly jumped out of the bed, stepping towards her until they were almost touching, "Ain't important, ma. What matters is I'm here, right?"

He didn't wait for her answer. He gently pushed her backwards until she hit the wall with a gasp. His eyes were burning when she met his gaze.

"So you ain't been missin' me, huh? Means I didn't do my job properly this mornin', then," he purred in her ear, his voice filled with gravel.

He caged her with both his arms and her lips hungrily searched for his mouth but he kept avoiding her, stubbornly keeping his mouth in her neck until he raised his head with a severe look on his face, clicking his tongue.

"Nuh huh. You don't get to touch me 'til I _deserve_ it," he smirked.

She let out a desperate whimper, her eyes slightly widening when one of his hands landed on her waist and slowly stroked her ribcage up to her breast. She couldn't resist her urge for touching him anymore, and she tentatively placed her hands at his hips. With a tut, he smacked her hands away, ultimately gathering her wrists in one hand and pinning them against the wall above her head.

He stared at her, a disapproving noise escaping from his throat, and she daringly stared back at him.

"Really? That's the top of your game?" she teased, trying to keep a so-called annoyed voice although the rising and falling of her chest were explicitly showing off how much she was already lost for him.

She provocatively licked her lips, delighted to see his eyes fall on her mouth like a butterfly can't resist the flame of a candle.

"Fuck!" he hoarsely hissed, before his lips crashed on hers.

She kissed him back with a muffled moan, pressing herself against his body and trying to free her wrists from his grip. He eventually let them go and she grabbed his shoulders to steady herself, her legs turning to jelly from the burning of his touch and kisses. And maybe the fact that she was still fairly drunk also didn't help.

"You, hmm... you still have 'em handcuffs I mailed you back then?" he suddenly whispered in her ear.

_Here is a little something that will look good on your wrists_

She intensely blushed at the suggestion, the memory of past times when they would constantly try to up each other resurfacing in her mind with the vaporous texture of a bad dream.

"God, I thought you'd never ask! They're in my nightstand drawer," she panted.

The countless hours she'd spent wondering if there had been a kinkier intent to him sending her this parcel than just mocking her imminent — and last-minute averted — arrest! Finally, she thought. She followed him near the bed as he retrieved them but she stopped him the moment he tentatively captured one of her wrists in his hand with a mischievous smile.

"Wow, wow, hold on, what do you think this is?"

He frowned, "What?"

She gave him incredulous eyes, "I just got released from jail, it's _rude_! Plus it means that you're somehow playing Turner and I'm not sure I'm into _that_ role play," she muttered under her breath.

"So wha—"

She didn't let him finish, her hand quickly grabbing the pair of handcuffs from his loosened grip and expertly tying him up to the bed within seconds before she laid him on his back and started unbuttoning his shirt.

"Hey, I'm not sure I like how _practiced_ you are at this!" he protested.

"Oh yeah? I'm sure that you won't complain about how practiced I am at _this_," she slowly said, placing her knees on both sides of his thighs, her hands unbuckling his belt and unzipping his jeans.

She was still tipsy from the evening with the girls, and it gave her a boldness she'd never have dared to express on sober times. He groaned when she took him in her mouth, her tongue dancing around him as she got wetter and wetter at the feeling of him hardening under her ministrations. She lost herself for a while in that powerful feeling of control she had over him, resisting the urge to touch herself every time she heard him moan, until he weakly stammered.

"I won't last if you keep goin', darlin'..."

She decided to take it as an invitation and she paused her caresses to straighten her body and slowly remove her clothes, her eyes locked with him and a hot expression on her face. Still maintaining their eye-contact, she let herself sink down on him with her palms on his chest, immediately clenching around him, and they both moaned from the feeling. She slowly bent down to kiss him deeply, slipping her tongue in his mouth and taking her time to enjoy every second of it before she started to move on top of him.

As horny as they both already were, it didn't take long from there for them to reach their respective peaks. Although Beth had been craving it for a while now, she hadn't anticipated how much the sight of Rio helplessly tied up to her bed and completely submitted to her power would turn her on. Bouncing over him at a quick pace, she gave in to a powerful orgasm which triggered Rio's pleasure. He exploded inside of her and she crashed on his torso, her face nesting in his neck and her tongue running along the inked wings of the prey bird on his throat.

They stayed still for a few minutes, recovering, before she felt him shift under her.

"Please, Elizabeth," he hissed, wriggling his wrists in a metallic clinking sound, "I wanna touch you."

She straightened her upper body, pulling on a serious face although her eyes were still hazed with the end of her orgasm, and probably a bit of drunkenness too, "Oh... Then I think we've got a problem."

"Whatchu mean?"

"You actually never sent me the key to these!" she giggled.

Over the following week, they spent every night together, even when they both had separate plans for the evening. Even when they had to be extra quiet because she had the kids sleeping upstairs. They didn't actually talk about it, but there was a sense of urgency within that new pattern which made sense after all. Beth may have looked confident in front of the girls, but deep down she was much more insecure about her future than she appeared to be from the outside. Her plan carried so many flaws and uncertainties that more than once she surprised her brain making a list of all the things she wanted to do before going to prison for the rest of her life. Hence sharing a bed with Rio every night, even a sexless night — it happened once — and mapping every line of his body, stockpiling memories of him for the moment when memories would be the only thing left, that made complete sense.

He respected her wish and didn't ask her about Turner for a week, until he couldn't refrain himself anymore.

"You ever gonna tell me 'bout your plan?" he asked one morning, sipping his tea in her kitchen and casting a curious glance at her above the edge of his mug.

She hadn't heard from Mary Pat, and she hadn't made any progress in her search for Turner's schedule on the night of the murder. But.... fair, Rio had the right to know. Not without some teasing first, though.

She smirked, "You really want to know, huh?"

"Yeah, it's basically killin' me at this point!" he joked.

She nodded, letting a triumphant smile stretch her lips, "It's annoying, right? Not knowing what the other one is thinking."

His expression immediately changed. A mix of understanding, slight annoyance, and... was this some kind of pride flashing in his eyes?

"Oh so this is what it's about. You givin' me my own tricks, yeah? Tastin' my own medicine and whatnot."

She pulled on her most innocent face, "I'm just pointing out what you usually put me through."

With a provocative pout, she slowly took a step closer, her eyes locked with him and he swallowed.

"Well I wouldna dunnit if I knew it sucks so much," he managed to reply.

This instantly sobered her up from the teasing, and she shook her head in disbelief, "Wait, you've never felt that before? With anyone?"

"Nah... You see, people usually tell me what I wanna know, even if it costs 'em a limb or two on the way," he smirked. He took his time to wet his lips with the tip of his tongue before he eventually tilted his head with a flirtatious gaze, "So?"

A wave of arousal ran across her belly and she blushed, "If you want to know, then, maybe you could just ask for it," she breathed.

She briefly wondered if they would get tired of this honeymoon phase someday, if they would ever stop turning basically any conversational topic into a proposition for sex, but she pushed that thought away. Not now. He closed the distance between them, until he was basically talking against her mouth.

"Yeah?" he whispered.

"Yeah."

"Maybe I'll ask later, then," he chuckled before he kissed her, one of his hands slipping under her pajama top to squeeze her breast, drawing out a loud moan from her throat.

She clung to his shoulders as he lifted her on the kitchen counter, his hands exploring her body while her fingers were working on the buttons of his shirt, and, well... All things considered, this was a more interesting topic than her plan against Turner.

"Actually, it was something you said that gave me the final idea," she explained later, all her limbs wrapped around him in the afterglow.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, when you told me he was walking on thin ice with his hierarchy. This made me thinking. What if he raised so many doubts and suspicions that they would have to get rid of him?"

"Whatchu mean?"

"I'm still trying to figure it out, but I think he doesn't have an alibi for Harry's murder. Plus we know he's got some very special... methods, to obtain what he wants."

"Honey, as much as I agree with you, this ain't court-material evidence. You can't ask for justice with a bunch of doubts and unfounded accusations."

She raised her eyebrows, somehow pissed-off that he could believe her stupid enough to not have thought this through.

"Hey, don't mansplain me with how justice works!" she protested, "What's the first thing that I have ever told you?"

"_Please don't kill me?_," he smirked.

She rolled her eyes, "Actually, it was probably something like _Who are you?_, or _What do you want?_, or even _What are you doing in my living-room to begin with?_, but that's not my point. Remember when I told you about what happens when bad things happen to good people?"

He frowned, "That shit you said 'bout movements and hashtags?"

She smiled, "Exactly. We're not telling justice. We're telling the world."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ruby is the hardest to write. But I love her, so I hope this chapter felt true. Also, I've never watched _Real Housewives_, I just put character names in random order, so please forgive me if Annie speaks total nonsense for someone who watches that show.
> 
> Oh and did you really think that those handcuffs wouldn't resurface someday in a kinkier way? *evil laughs*


	9. Love Of The Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I'm done playing games in the backyard _  
_I left home and I learned how to live hard _  
_Take a look at me, 'cause I'm gonna be what I'm gonna be _  
_You got to understand _  
_I've never been closer than I am right now _  
_'Cause I'm telling you _  
_I ain't in it for the payday I ain't in it for the champagne _  
_I'm just in it for the love, the love, the love, the love of the game _  
_[...] _  
_I'm comin' for you! _  
(song from **Welshly Arms**)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phewwww!! I can't believe I finally made it before S3 starts! I actually haven't slept for a week to finish this, so I'll check the spelling/language mistakes tomorrow...

Annie puffed out her cheeks with exasperation.

"Fine," she grunted, "But only because it's you!"

"Thank you."

With one last dark look at Beth, she walked to the living room where the four kids were waiting, already packed.

"Heeeeey! Who's in for a ride with their fav auntie?" she greeted.

The kids yay-ed all at the same time in an excited confusion and Annie yay-ed back, forcing a smile on her face.

"You owe me one, B," she hissed between her teeth when she walked past Beth, guiding the kids outside to the minivan and furiously starting the engine.

Honestly, it wasn't like she didn't _understand_ Beth. If Greg had done with Sadie the same absolutely shameful misconduct Dean had with her sister's kids, no doubts that she wouldn't be keen either on having to see him when she'd drop Sadie for his week. She'd rip off his head, for sure. She didn't even understand why Beth had not done that yet. She'd never exactly been Dean's biggest fan. Duh. But over the years, she had had to admit that he'd _provided_ for Beth for a while. And okay, it was painful to acknowledge it but she kinda _owed_ him too, for the way he'd supported and secured both of them, in the troubled times of her teenage pregnancy, not to mention the divorce with Greg. Ugh. Shitty days. Anyway, she used to find Dean... what was the word for it? Oh right. _Okay_. So that was the only reason why she'd always tried to act nice around him and restrain her urge to shit on him, especially in front of Beth.

Except that now... Now he'd crossed an unforgivable boundary, and her remaining esteem for the guy had dropped far below sea-level. Fine. If Beth didn't rip his head off, she would. Sorry dude, that's just how sisterhood works! She kept an entertaining face during the whole ride, though, singing along with the kids, although she was _fulminating_ inside. Dean was waiting for them under the porch of the house he was renting. Annie suspected him to be so much convinced that Beth would take him back some day that it restrained him from _buying_ a new place, it kept this thing temporary. Unless he didn't have the money. She shrugged. Whatever. She didn't care. The kids stormed in their dad's house with joyful yells and Dean gave her a confused look.

"Where's Beth?" he asked.

Annie raised her eyebrows. Wow. Beth didn't even bother to _text_ him she wouldn't come.

"She doesn't want to see you," she icily retorted, all defensive, "And honestly dude, considering what you did to her I think she's going easy with you."

Dean pointed his fingers at a dark reddish bruise on his cheekbone, "You call _that_ easy?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah," Annie ferociously replied, "And you did that to yourself by the way, I know she didn't hit your face!"

He must have hit the floor with a wrong angle or something. To be fair she'd never have thought that Beth had it in her to someday beat Dean's ass like that. Not that he didn't _deserve_ it, but she just... This didn't sound like the Beth who used to forgive him everything. Actually it sounded more like Annie's own impulsive, immature reactions to life not going her way. New Beth was the coolest. Dean quickly glanced inside the house, probably checking that no kid was eavesdropping before he stepped closer.

"Listen, I'm really sorry, okay? I didn't think this FBI guy would arrest _her_. I never meant this..." he gestured, looking for an appropriate word.

She shook her head, "_Sorry_s won't get you back in her pants. Like ever."

He nodded, "I know that. I just want to help. Make it up for it."

"Well, if you just could stay away from her like forever, well... that would be really _helpful_, thank you!" she retorted with a feral smile.

She turned around, walking to the car when he yelled in her back.

"I could spy for you, you know? I have his trust. Last time we met he was just back from a surveillance mission in her neighborhood and he told me everything about it!"

Annie froze, her hand on the car door. She slowly turned her head at him, squinting.

"When did you just say you met him?" she asked with an tiny voice.

"So, I was talking to Dean—"

"Really? That's what you 911-ed us for?" Ruby asked, her eyes widened with a hint of disbelief.

"Hold on, she _never_ talks to him, that a biggie!" Beth giggled.

Annie bit her lips. She'd texted Beth and Ruby the minute she'd left Dean's house alley. Would it kill them to be a minimum supportive?

"Turner was with Dean the night when Harry..." she blurted out.

She'd initially meant to drop her big reveal in a more dramatic way, but Ruby and Beth's jokes were really, really annoying.

Beth gasped, "So he _has_ an alibi," she whispered with terrified eyes.

Annie shook her head, "No, they met at 3am or something. Buuut, Turner was back from your house, and he told Dean that he was alone there," she grinned.

"Oh my God, Annie!"

Beth enthusiastically hugged her sister, Ruby coming closer to wrap her arms around the two of them, and Annie cleared her throat in embarrassment.

"So you know what this means, right?" Ruby softly asked.

"What? That I saved the day? Duh!" Annie replied.

"It means that I'm going to bring that secret-shopping meetings three-legged whiteboard back from the garage," Beth whispered, her voice muffled from the hug.

"Okay," Annie started a few hours later, standing in front of her favorite whiteboard, "I hereby officially launch our evil plan big reveal!"

Both Beth and Ruby unconvincingly clapped their hands, their faces clearly saying that maybe Annie was overdoing it, just the slightest bit.

"Where's Rio?" Annie asked.

After an interminable argument, the girls had eventually decided that Rio plus the three of them would be the only people allowed to be in the whole loop of their plan. The less people knew about it, the better. Annie had vigorously fought against the idea of having anyone else beside the three of them, but Beth had won the argument by implying that her pillow talks would reach a whole new level of details if Rio wasn't authorized to attend their meeting. The question of Stan's presence had been raised too as a consequence, but according to Ruby, the latter himself didn't want to be involved.

"Since we are in the plus ones section, why don't you bring Patrick? That would be an occasion for him to see the whole picture!" Beth had treacherously asked Annie in retaliation for speaking against Rio.

Annie had given her a murderous look but at least they both had stopped arguing.

"I don't know," Beth honestly answered, "I mean I texted him but he didn't text me back, so..."

"Never mind. We can start without him," Ruby said, "I'm sure he'll be able to catch up," she added with a long glance filled with innuendoes at Beth.

Annie gave her sister an interrogative look and Beth sighed, "Fine."

Annie dramatically uncapped her marker pen before she started talking with the intense enthusiasm of a cult leader.

"So let's recap it all. Step one. Beth, you start with pressing charges against Turner for harassment and you contest the acceptability of your so-called confession. I suggest that you use Rio's kick-ass lawyer for that."

"Actually, I suggested that," Beth pointed out with a wave or her eyebrows.

"Yeah, whatever," Annie replied with a shake of her head, "Anyway, tell her to go easy on this. We don't want to succeed."

"Again, I'm the one who explained that to you like two weeks ago!" Beth protested.

At this very moment, the backyard door slammed shut and Rio entered the living room.

"Yo, what's up, Gangfriend? Hey can I call you G-Dog? You're late by the way!" Annie greeted him with a cocky wave of her head that she probably thought gave her a badass criminal look, but Rio ignored her to walk straight to Beth and kiss her on the cheek before he sat by her side on the couch.

"Hey," he muttered.

Beth instantly blushed under the girls' baffled eyes widened in shock. She cleared her throat.

"Could we, hum... now that everyone is here we should just... proceed," she managed to articulate.

"Wassup with your sister? She talkin' weird," Rio hissed in a whisper that was purposely audible for everyone.

Annie loudly snorted at Beth giggling, and she embarrassedly turned back to the whiteboard.

"Sooo, as I was saying, we press unsuccessful charges. Which leads us to step two. In reaction to this obvious justice _failure_, we create a movement."

Beth suddenly felt Rio's hand clasping around hers as Annie was talking, and she repressed a gasp. She gave him a quick side glance and the corner of his lips raised in a half-grin. He gently tugged her hand from her lap to the tiny space left between their bodies and he entangled his fingers between hers. The angle of the coffee table in front of the couch made it impossible for Annie or Ruby to spot it, and Beth gradually relaxed in the warm peace of their clandestine hands holding.

_We're not telling justice. We're telling the world_

"Darlin', if I may, you don't know a shit 'bout social media," he had replied.

"I don't. But I know who does," she'd smiled.

She was still absent-mindedly smiling at the memory when she refocused on Annie who was currently demonstrating the whole extent of her surprising leadership abilities. Beth really hoped she'd made the right decision trusting her sister on this.

"First of all, we need a powerful hashtag," Annie said, already hectic, "Any suggestion?"

The blank stares of her audience didn't seem to discourage her.

"I'm just tossing out some ideas here, what about... _Justice for Beth_?"

Beth rolled her eyes, "Ugh, no!"

"_Police kills?_"

"Too dramatic."

"_Not in our name?_"

Beth sighed, "Already taken. Even _I_ know that!"

"_Make FBI great again?_"

"Annie!"

Annie shrugged, "Didn't feel this one anyway... Maybe a parody of the FBI motto, then? Like _Felony, Brutality, Insecurity?_"

Ruby raised her hands in protest, "As lame as the original!"

"Too long," Beth interjected.

They stayed silent for a while, until Annie tentatively threw, "_Not my agent?_"

Beth's eyes fluttered, "Just... No!"

Annie sighed in discouragement and she bit her lips, thinking hard.

"What 'bout _This is FBI?_" Rio's drawling voice eventually raised from the couch.

"Yeah, I like that," Beth slowly said.

Annie pouted, "Not bad, G-Dog, not bad... Okay, fine, I'll admit, I like it too. Ruby?" — the latter nodded — "So, this is it. We got it!"

Annie tentatively air-highfived Rio, drawing absolutely no reaction from him but a slightly annoyed snort of contempt.

"Okay, so this is my movement," she spoke again, "_Our_ movement, I mean," she immediately rectified.

Beth shook her head, "No, sweetie, it's yours. We discussed this and I think that it's better if you're the one launching it after you launched that fundraiser. Ruby and I will mainly relay her posts," she added for Rio. 

"As you asked me, I've already started friending some bitches from high school who got like, tons of followers on insta," Annie said, "In fact..." — she pulled her phone out of her pocket — "I'm currently liking everything they pos— Oh look, Monica Jones has a new puppy! And ten more pounds... Surely _like_ that!" she muttered under her breath, her thumb pressing the screen.

"We need to make as much noise as we can with this," Beth softly reminded everyone.

"What happens if we don't?" Ruby asked.

"It's... not an option," Beth whispered, and she felt Rio's fingers squeezing hers in an encouraging yet soothing way.

"Ideally, to make our movement grow, we need people to start sharing their own stories of police abuses," Annie said, "Which is why, Ruby, your post about Turner harassing you and Stan must be perfectly timed."

"And I was thinking, maybe we could use another couple of incentive posts? Should we ask Mary Pat?" Beth suggested.

"What 'bout Carman?" Rio suddenly asked.

Beth conspiratorially raised her eyebrows, "Oh, he plays another part later..."

"Hold on, hold on, you're ahead of planning!" Annie complained, "So, step two, we create a movement. Step three, we make it grow until it's trendy, using pre-planned posts to ignite the buzz and improve our LPPs."

Rio frowned, "What the fuck is she talkin' 'bout? I told you she's speakin' weird."

"Oh no, that's how millenials talk nowadays," Beth chuckled back.

"Come on, don't tell me you never heard of average likes per posts... It's basically Instagram 101!" Annie complained.

"Nope, never heard those words!" Ruby shook her head, purposely annoying.

Annie took a step back to down a glass of water before she spoke again, a hint of worry making its way in her voice.

"If everything goes as planned, by the end of step three, we'll have made enough noise and raised enough suspicions so that everyone will have their eyes on Turner. Which, for the record, won't please the FBI since he's already a cause of embarrassment ever since the Boomer fiasco. This is when step four intervenes."

"We drop the bomb," Beth completed with excitement, "We question Turner's alibi for the night of the murder and Dean gives a statement about meeting him in that night. I'll make sure he provides a lot of disturbing details."

"So you gonna ask him to lie? Ain't that risky?" Rio asked.

"I'll take care of it."

There was something scary in Beth's determination and a heavy silence fell on the room.

"So this leads us to step five," Annie eventually said with a tiny voice, "We reveal his particular... acquaintances with gangbangers."

"We're going to need you for this," Beth told Rio with something pleading in her eyes, "Do you think that you could convince the hitmen he hired to testify against him?"

His jaw ticked with the annoyance he felt every time Elizabeth demonstrated how much she had no idea of how his world worked.

"I'll see what I can do," he promised, though.

"So, here we end. On step six," Annie hesitantly said, drawing a huge interrogation mark on the whiteboard under the step six mention.

"Which is..." Ruby asked.

"Everyone's reaction," Beth explained with a dark expression on her face, "We don't have control on this part. Turner's probably going to counter-attack, the press will dig in our pasts, the FBI might interrogate all of us. There is nothing we can do about it except try to be prepared and hope for the best."

Rio's thumb ran over her inner wrist but it wasn't enough to dissipate the mist of anxiety and sadness that had just fallen on her. There were so many flaws in their plan, so many uncertainties, that she honestly didn't see how it could end well. But hey, it was still better than doing nothing and waiting for her fate. Go big or go home, right? So this time she was going all-in.

_Now roll the dice. See what happens_

"Does anyone have questions?" Annie muttered in a raspy voice.

* * *

**Step 1**

* * *

"No? Nobody? Then let's get started."

Annie and Ruby glanced at Beth with so much hope and encouragements that it made her ridiculously emotional. She blinked, chasing her emergent tears and she cleared her throat.

"I'm going to call Gretchen," she said, getting up on her feet and excusing herself to the bedroom, her phone already unlocked in her hand.

She closed the door behind her and an awkward silence fell on the living-room.

"So," Ruby eventually let out, "I'm going home now. But keep me in the loop for that hashtag thing, okay?" she said, patting Annie's shoulder on her way to the front door.

Another door closed and the silence grew even more awkward. Rio silently stared at Annie with a smirk and she gave him an annoyed glance, shaking her head.

"What?" she asked.

"What is it that you called me earlier?" he frowned, feigning to not remember.

"G-Dog?" she lowly replied.

"Mhh, yeah... Don't do that. Ever."

She raised her chin in a provocative attempt, "You don't scare me, you know?"

"No?"

"A little bit," she admitted with a wince, showing off a small distance between her thumb and her pointer finger.

He chuckled but he didn't say anything, silently staring at her and waiting. She could have left with Ruby but she hadn't. Which meant she had something to tell him.

"So you and Beth patched things up, huh?" she eventually asked.

He jerked his chin, "Seems so."

"For good?"

He shrugged, "Hope so. What 'bout you, you told that BF of yours the truth 'bout what you do?" he asked, unwilling to discuss his feeling for Elizabeth with her sister.

Something close to vulnerability showed up on her face, and that was... odd. He'd never seen Annie in a different mood than her usual reckless and provocative childishness, he'd never thought that she could be, well... _sensitive_. She slowly shook her head. Man, she looked scared, taken off-guard from his question, and he kinda pitied her.

"Well you should talk to him if you care 'bout him. You don't base trust on lies," he gently said.

He didn't need to elaborate. The fact that he'd almost lost Elizabeth over that particular mistake was hanging between the two of them, unspoken but yet obvious. For an instant she seemed about to open up more, he could see the fear in her eyes, but she quickly overcame it.

"Wow, I can't believe I just got relationship advice from a crime lord who broke my sister's heart!" she taunted him, dissipating her own distress.

Her bringing up the harm he'd done to Elizabeth instead of the good part displeased him, and his jaw clenched with irritation, "Well, I mended it, so it doesn't count," he coldly replied.

She raised her eyebrows, somehow astonished with his answer, "Great," she hissed, breaking their eye-contact to go for her purse, "Well, don't break it again. That's all I ask of you. See ya, Gangfriend," she said, heading to the front door.

He vaguely hummed in response, jumping on his feet the second Annie was gone to join Elizabeth in the bedroom. She'd just hung up the phone after her talk with Gretchen, and he smiled at her. He loved the way she was bossing up, taking charge in her Turner-destruction plan. He closed the distance between them to face her.

"Sorry 'bout the cheek kiss, was afraid I wouldn't be able to stop myself if I started kissin' you," he teased, and he saw her lips part in reaction.

"Well, everyone is gone now, so..." she hoarsely whispered.

She tiptoed to reach his mouth, her hand cradling the nape of his neck and he entangled his fingers in her hair, greedily kissing her.

"Hi," she smiled when their lips parted.

He didn't let her elaborate as he reached for her mouth again. She broke the kiss a few minutes later though, catching her breath and licking her lips.

"I've got some work to do," she stammered as an excuse.

"Can't it wait?" he drawled.

She rolled her eyes, "I'm not going to take down anyone with that kind of attitude!" she scolded him.

"Oh c'mon ma, it'll be only this one time, I swear," he whispered, running his thumb along her swollen bottom lip.

Almost reflexively, her tongue darted to suck at his finger, and he could tell the exact moment when she helplessly fell for it. He replaced his thumb with his mouth and she wrapped her arms around him, stroking his back and throatily moaning against his lips in a way that made him feel dizzy. He gently guided her backwards toward the bed, and this time she didn't bring up work.

It wasn't like she had so much left on her plate anyway. Gretchen was in charge of filing the appeal, and there was nothing left to do but wait for the moment. The argument was weakly contesting the validity of Beth's confession, pointing out some unfitting details, and invoking external pressure during the interrogation.

Turner couldn't believe it when he heard about it. What a lame move from her! He'd have expected something smarter, but maybe she was running short of options. And she had to, obviously, cornered as she was. He didn't see how she could escape from him now. Although her confession did include some imprecise details, he could see that on a rereading. He winced. He should have been more careful, but it was 3 am when she'd signed, and by then he'd been exhausted. Nothing to worry about, though. There was absolutely no chance for her case to be revised. Well, almost no chance. He'd talk to the judge. Just to make sure. The guy was a close friend, it shouldn't cause any problem. He had her, this time, and he wouldn't let her go.

* * *

**Step 2**

* * *

"So, that's it. They covered up the case," Beth announced.

It had been an excruciating week, filled with uncertainty. She'd spent every minute scared to discover that she'd neglected an option, or forgotten a hugely important detail. But it had all worked as planned so far, fueling her with more confidence for the rest of it. Annie clapped her hand with juvenile excitement before she rubbed her palms together in anticipation.

"Are we launching phase two? When do we start?"

Beth smiled, settling herself more comfortably in her sister's couch, "Whenever you're ready, sweetie."

It took them a while to come up with the story they wanted to convert into a national cause. It had to be consistent enough, but not overly detailed. Relatable, but dreadful. Dissonant, but trendy. Eventually they posted the cry for help from the sister of a mother of four who was unjustly harassed and randomly accused of murder while she was trying to make end meets at the head of a modest bakery company. All of which being partially true. Annie reverently added a proud _#thisisfbi_ at the end, and she was about to press _'Send'_ when she froze.

"What?" Beth asked.

Annie lovingly looked at her and handed her the phone, "I want you to do it. It's your work, sis, you deserve this."

"Come on, it's just a thumb twitch, it's not a big deal!" Beth protested, blushing with some kind of fake modesty.

"A thumb twitch which has the power to change your entire life. Do it," Annie insisted, raising her eyebrows.

Giggling with embarrassment, Beth sent the post. She was jumpy. Despite her protests, she was fully aware of how this first message was crucial for her future. She downed her glass of wine as a reward.

"Done!" she said, "Now let's relay this to all our contacts..."

She searched her purse for her own phone when Annie stopped her, one hand on her bicep.

"Wait. There's someone I need to talk to first," she said with worried eyes.

Beth stared at her with concerned understanding.

"So you are really doing this, huh?" she softly asked after a silence.

Annie nodded, her lips pursed in a vague attempt to keep her composure. Beth gently smiled.

"Okay. Good luck, then. Just call me if you need anything."

She hugged her sister before she left the apartment, and with a loud sigh, Annie dialed the number she kind of hated herself for already knowing by heart.

"So, what's the emergency?" Patrick asked with an ironic smile when he saw Annie opening her door in her pajamas, "I brought wine."

She blinked, "I, hum... Just come in. We need to talk."

He entered the apartment and his face lost its cheerful expression when he noticed the devastated look on her face, "Oh no. You're breaking up with me," he realized.

"Patrick, no, I... Listen. There's something I need to tell you. Promise you won't get mad?" Annie asked, avoiding his eyes and wringing her hands in distress.

He raised an eyebrow, "What? You cheated on me or something? We never actually specified that this was exclusive," he pointed out with a smirk, his hand gesturing between the two of them.

She shook her head, gathering all her courage, "No, it's not that. Remember when you asked me if I had done something illegal? Well, I... kinda lied to you about it," she said, her voice almost inaudible.

Patrick snorted, hitting his chest with his left hand in the area of his heart while letting out a dramatic, "What a surprise!"

Annie furrowed her eyebrows at this lunatic demonstration, "Huh?"

"You think I didn't _know?_" he asked with irony and something looking like, oh no, _disappointment_ in his eyes.

"What?"

He sighed, "You know that as your boss I get to sign your paycheck every week, right? I know you're on minimum wage. And your sister is selling cakes. And I saw how you live, and the people involved in your lives. I've told you before, I'm not stupid, Annie."

"Why didn't you say anything?" she asked, almost speechless.

"I gave you plenty of opportunities to tell me," he pointed out with a hint of bitterness.

They remained silent for a while. _So, this is it_, she thought. He was going to break up with her and she'd have to face Sadie's coldness, and well... her own self-contemptuous sadness. 

"Why are you telling me now?" he suddenly asked.

She cleared her throat, still avoiding his eyes, "Because soon your social media feed is gonna be flooded with weird messages about the FBI. And also because... I like you. A lot."

"Are you telling me that you are quietly admitting to me that you've broken the law while you've got something currently going on with the FBI? I mean, honey, I knew you had a terrible sense of timing, but that's way worse than I thought!" he replied with amused incredulity.

Seriously? That was what he retained from all of this? Jeez, men were so weird!

She shrugged with feigned nonchalance, "Well, obviously, I'll have to kill you if you turn me in, but..."

He guffawed, stepping closer so he could wrap a comforting arm around her shoulders, "I should have listened to my father, never trust an independent woman!" he joked, dropping a kiss in her hair before he pivoted to face her, "Hey, it's okay, honey."

She raised incredulous eyes at him, "Seriously? Does this mean that you have shady stuff on your side too? Oh my God, are you a serial killer?"

He gently shook his head, "I'm not. And I cannot say that I approve this. But I guess I can live with it."

"Really?"

He nodded, "Yeah. Because I _like_ you too, Annie Marks. A lot."

Beth sent her own post in the late evening, completing Annie's information with some precisions about the interrogation circumstances and asserting that Turner had pressured her into signing a confession for a murder she had nothing to do with. And except for that last statement, it was all true. Ruby brought her own contribution on the next day, sharing with the world Turner's obsessive chasing after Stan and her. And the truth was, neither of them was actually _lying_, that would have been too dangerous, but it was all about... presenting the truth under a specific angle. One which sent the spotlight on their suburban moms normal side, leaving the rest hidden in the darkness.

Nothing happened at first, and for a couple of days, Beth thought that she had missed her shot. Nobody bothered to respond on the FBI side either, and she internally cursed her own naivety. But three or four days after Ruby's post, something came up. Carol from PTA sent a long and honestly annoyingly melodramatic message to _'break the silence'_ and describe how Turner had followed her to her kids' extracurricular to ask her all sorts of questions about Beth over the past year. Which last fact Beth ignored. Turner was insane. And, well, quite stupid too, all things considered. Annie liked Carol's post to give it more visibility, obviously, but she couldn't restrain a snort of contempt.

"Look who's trying to make it up for missing the MeToo train!" she sneered.

Annie had never liked Carol. Not that Beth was her biggest fan either, though. But she was their self-unconscious savior, as it turned out. Following Carol's testimony, about a dozen of PTA moms reported similar stories about Turner. Beth was in shock to discover the extent of Turner's obsession for her. And, message after message, post after post, things started to mushroom a little, although it didn't reach out beyond regional social media agitation. And it hadn't raised any FBI agent's attention so far.

_In my line of work, if you don't have the FBI on your back, you ain't making noise_

The time had come to move up a gear and strike harder.

* * *

**Step 3**

* * *

"As you may have noticed, all that has been reported so far is that Turner is wandering around and harassing people as if in his own annoying episode of _Columbo_," Beth started, "But we need more. And you have a lot to offer, with all the time he's been pressuring and blackmailing you over your dead husband."

Mary Pat blankly stared at her, "I could make a real difference, huh?"

Annie rolled her eyes with extreme displeasure, "Ugh, I know where this is going!"

"What do you want?" Beth severely asked, raising her eyebrows.

Annie disguised a "Money!" in a cough and Mary Pat pulled on a sorry-not-so-sorry face.

"I have four kids," she winced.

"You know that this is helping you too, right? I mean, Turner's going to eat you alive if we fail at taking him down," Beth coldly reminded her. Although she bit her lips, considering, before she added, "We'll give you fifty grand. After everything's over. It's a take or leave."

Mary Pat slightly nodded, her lips pursed.

"So we need you to post about your own interactions with Turner..." Beth started, but Mary Pat immediately cut her.

"Oh, you want me to use social media? Cause I was rooting for a press release, but if you think that it's better..."

Beth raised her eyebrows, "A press release? I mean, I wish we could do that, but there is no journalist who would publish a proof-less testimony!"

"Oh, but I have proof. You didn't think that I would meet with him without taking a few precautions, right? I recorded it all," Mary Pat explained to an astonished Beth.

She blinked several times, absorbing the information.

"Why didn't you tell us?" she eventually asked.

"Oh, cause I also recorded all of _our meetings_, you know, just in case," Mary Pat replied with a predatory grin, tilting her head on the side.

"Why am I not even surprised? Mary Pat... Rooting for herself since 1975!" Annie snorted.

Their beginning of a movement wasn't big enough yet to raise national press interest, so it took Mary Pat a few days to eventually get a positive response among regional newspapers. From the _Detroit Post_. As it turned out, the editor in chief knew Turner's methods from an older and completely unrelated case, and his name wasn't very much appreciated among the newspaper staff. The article was a powerful bomb dropped on the State of Michigan's institutions, and the _thisisfbi_ hashtag went right across the country overnight. National press immediately relayed the _Detroit Post_ article, releasing to the public Mary Pat's recordings of Turner threatening her into spying on Beth. This was the turning point when people started to share their own stories of abusive police officers and federal agents.

The girls celebrated the same night. Things were going a little too much exactly as planned for Beth not to think that this was too good to last, but they should as well enjoy it in the meantime. A few journalists had already contacted them, willing to know more, but both Beth and Ruby had refused to talk to the press. As their improvised spokeswoman, Annie was the only one who consented to provide some information. But there was no official reaction from the local FBI antenna so far. Although it was probably a matter of days before it happened, considering the increasing media pressure over the case. The girls were counting on it actually.

"So far we've only raised attention over Turner's questionable investigating methods. We need them to think that this is all of it, that they'll have it all under control with an official statement before we come up with the murder accusation," Beth explained.

It got even better than expected. Slightly embarrassed with these new revelations about one of their agent who was already in a hot seat, the FBI spokesmen surprisingly chose to present a united front two days later, confidently assuring that this was only but a misunderstanding which would be clarified soon, and claiming their renewed support to Turner. They probably intended to wash their dirty laundry away from public eyes, but whatever. It was perfect.

* * *

**Step 4**

* * *

Dean was apparently watering the lawn in front of his house when Beth pulled over and parked in his alley. As soon as he caught side of her he dropped the hose, turning the water tap off, and he watched her climb out of her car, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Bethie... Long time no see, huh?"

She ignored his greeting and icily came straight to the point, "Annie said you wanted to help. So here is your chance."

To be honest, he didn't like her bossy tone, and he was afraid of the kind of service she could ask him. Considering that the last time he'd seen her she'd almost murdered him before falling in the arms of her criminal lover, he doubted that whatever task she had for him would sound even remotely appealing.

"What if I say no?"

She crossed her arms over her chest, "Then you will never see your kids again. I mean it."

And he knew she did. Ever since the night she'd punched him, he'd realized that she'd changed, for good. There would never be a coming back for them from her pointing a gun at him, he could tell from her look, and it infuriated him. He'd lost everything on a stupid mistake while he was so close. He'd trusted the wrong person and look what had happened! But he wasn't mad at himself. He was mad at Turner, blaming him for his failure at getting Beth back. So maybe contributing to his fall would provide some acceptable revenge, at least. Plus she didn't leave him much of a choice, anyway. He loved his children. And doing something by her side, well... it could only but incite Beth and him to bond again, right?

"What do you need me for?" he hesitantly replied.

"I want to you to go to the police and tell them exactly what happened the night you met with Jim Turner."

His expression changed, flooded with relief, and he cheerfully hummed, seemingly pleased and maybe a little self-important, "Sounds easy!"

"Except for a few details," she negligently added with a soft smile, "You will also tell them that among other things he confessed to you that he'd just murdered someone. That he had blood on his clothes. That he threatened you to kill you too if you didn't do what he asked. I've already emailed you the whole story."

"You want me to lie to the FBI? Beth, this is insane! They will confront my statement to his!"

"And who do you think they will believe? The shady agent who's already a symbol of police oppression, or the divorced father of four who's never even gotten a parking ticket?"

He lowered his eyes, considering her point. Again, not that he had that much choice, but her logic somehow made sense. Although....

"What's for me in this?" he asked.

_First of all I don't kill you_, she thought. But threats were risky, they could scare him, lead him to press her head deeper under the water. A reward sounded better for starters. She cleared her throat. 

"Well, if it works, you get to be a social media hero for breaking the silence and ending the reign of terror of a white-collar criminal. If you're lucky, maybe some dumb chick with strong daddy issues will even follow you on Instagram or whatever and send you a friend request."

He raised one eyebrow, "Really? I'm not sure that's how social media wor— Wait, _if it works?_ What happens if it doesn't?"

She took a deep breath, trying to control the shakiness of her voice, "If it doesn't work... Just tell the kids I love them each day I won't be there to do it myself."

He slightly nodded. Maybe this was the only and last thing they had in common. The love they shared for their kids. And maybe he wouldn't have done what she was asking, covered up for a criminal — cause he was almost certain that this was what she had become — if it wasn't for the kids, if it wasn't for the sparkles of joy in their eyes every time they would rush into their mother's arms when he'd drop them at her place. He wasn't sure that he could ever overcome her leaving him, nor forgive her what he thought was the most selfish choice he'd ever seen someone make. But the kids were what mattered most, and he would do anything for them.

Hence he did as she'd asked, after having erased any trace of the email she'd sent him. The interrogation was pretty scary. He could count on his two hands the number of times he'd had to go to a police station in his life, most of the time to pick-up a hangovered teenage Annie who'd spent the night in the drunk tank. And he'd never had to _lie_ to a police officer before. It went surprisingly easy, though. The first lie was the hardest, but then the story unfolded itself naturally. The officer who took his statement even thanked him for his courage to speak up. As instructed, he didn't message Beth about it, didn't send anything proving that she'd asked him to testify. But she probably had her own ways to find out because she texted him on the next day, allowing him to pick up the kids after school and have them for the week end. That was the biggest reward he would ever get from her from now on.

Dean's surprise statement was a breaking news in the already boiling hot topic of Turner's case. The press, massively supported by public opinion stirred up the whole thing, making it impossible for the FBI not to launch investigations. Hearings of everyone involved in the case, including Mary Pat and the girls, were announced, and considering the recent developments, Gretchen asked for the drop of all the charges pressed against Beth. 

Turner's car was investigated in order to find the blood that Dean had claimed was covering Turner's suit when they had met. Well, obviously they couldn't find any, although Beth had briefly wondered if there was a possibility to set something up about it. She had renounced in front of Ruby and Annie's panicked gazes which clearly implied that her sanity had abandoned her. However investigators really conveniently found the gun that had been used to kill Harry hidden under the passenger's seat carpet. What a surprise...

* * *

**Step 5**

* * *

He didn't see the blast coming. When the first posts had appeared on social media, he had sneered. Did she really think that she could get her way out of this thanks to Twitter and Instagram? Was she _that_ desperate? If so, it could only mean that she was running out of options, that he'd already won. Then it had started to make more noise, and these stupid gooses from Beth Boland's PTA had opened their big mouths. Not that he'd done anything illegal there, though, he was just a very zealous investigator, but he had had to face his boss's anger. Turner was already making a fool of himself ever since the Boomer case, they didn't need another scandal in his wake. He'd thought the dust would settle, though. After all, this was only but suburban trendy gossip which would soon suffocate in its own ashes, quickly replaced with the last Kardashian anecdote or something.

And that was when his former informant had dutifully betrayed him, frontally accusing him of murder. And it wasn't before the investigation had started, and he got asked about his activities of the evening when Harry had met his fate, that he realized his mistake. He didn't have an alibi. Worse, the details of what had happened in his car were a word against word situation, and he was already too far deep into disgrace to compete with the clear and legit Boland ex-husband. And he hadn't expected that gun he'd been searching for so long to resurface. But come on, he was in the best position to know that this was just made up evidence. While _he_ had other stuff against her. Better wait for her to play all her cards before revealing the ace up his sleeve, though.

Until then, things had gone pretty much according to the plan. But as the girls were approaching the stage where they would lose any control over the situation, Beth was growingly anxious. The retaliation she'd been expecting from Turner had not happened and it was... kind of shady. She stuck to the next step of the plan nevertheless. Rio and her had agreed that it was safer for the two of them not to hang out during the whole taking down operation, since a simple picture of them together could ruin her whole normal housewife communication operation. So it wasn't his car she sneaked inside one evening at the park after a careful check of her surroundings.

"Hi, Demon!" she greeted him.

And despite all the anxiety, and the residual sadness that Rio's absence would always leave inside of her, she was truly happy to see him.

"Hi. Been a while," he grunted, although she'd learnt to decipher his mood from the tone of his raspy voice and she could tell that he was equally happy to see her, "The boss told me ya got summin' for me to do, yeah?"

She nodded, "Rio said that he knew some of the goons — sorry, that's not an offensive term, right? — Turner hired to do his dirty job. I need you to track them down to convince them to testify against Turner and reveal that they worked with him."

Demon winced, "Ain't gonna be easy, Beth. You know what they say, snitches get stitches."

"I know," she replied with an evil smile, "And I doubt Turner will leave them at peace either whatever happens next. So here is what I have to offer in exchange."

She handed him a duffel bag and he quickly unzipped it to look at its content. Beside the expected bankrolls of legit cash was a plastic bag containing brand new passports.

"Freshly made from this morning," Beth proudly said, "I used Rio's facility."

Demon raised his eyebrows, looking impressed with her new counterfeit passports skills.

"Ya gettin' real good at this," he enthusiastically nodded.

"I know," she smiled back.

"And the boss, he... Well, ya really make him happy."

Her victorious smile vanished, replaced with a sweet feeling that made a lump grow in her throat and sentimental tears burn her eyes.

"I do?" she whispered after a silence, choking with restrained emotion.

Demon looked at her. Like really looked at her. With an unbridled affection she'd always suspected but never actually _seen_.

"Don't hurt him," he just warned her.

"I won't."

She wasn't sure of the persuasion method Demon used against Turner's henchmen, but at least three of them gave incriminating statements against Turner. Shortly after, a bunch of texts between him and Harry were exhumed from the latter's phone by the FBI independent investigators working on the case, which definitively established the rather criminal collaboration existing between Harry and Turner.

From this moment on, Turner became the man to bring down. No matter Beth's own issues with justice, Turner was the symbol of establishment oppression, and there didn't seem to be a coming back from that in terms of public image. So he got suspended. On the next day, Beth was convened for a preliminary hearing regarding the murder charges she was still facing.

* * *

**Step 6**

* * *

Finally. They had made it to the finish line. Now the destiny of everyone was in Beth's hands. If she failed at this, she'd drag everyone in her fall. She wasn't stupid enough to believe that the hearing would be a piece of cake. She knew that Turner had solid stuff against her. If it hadn't leaked out in the press yet, then it meant that they were planning to use it in some other way. In front of the judge during her hearing sounded like a smart option. So she tried to anticipate, as much as she could, polish her own story until she'd almost forgotten that it wasn't real. Still, she was anxious as fuck.

The night before the hearing, Rio broke their rule of not seeing each other and came over to see her. There was too much at risk for them not to spend some time together, at least one more time. They shared a meal in silence until it became obvious that there was an elephant in the room. He cleared his throat.

"There's summin' I need to tell you," he said, avoiding her eyes, "I been thinkin', and I'm not sure it would be safe for me to stick around right after this is all over."

"Are you saying that we are going to keep going with this stupid rule of staying apart?" she snapped at him.

She understood his point, she did. But she was anxious about the hearing, and she missed him, and the idea of spending another round of weeks without him was... frustrating.

"I'm sayin' I'll fly back to SoCal for a few months 'til the dust settles," he said, "I'm sorry, sweetheart, it makes me sad too. But they're not gonna immediately stop watchin' us just cuz they put Turner behind bars."

"If they do," she reminded him, "What if I'm the one behind bars instead?"

He dismissed her point with a wave of his hand.

"I'm sure you'll nail it. You look normal and that's all they see, not the real you."

For some reason, what he'd just said hurt her deeply. And suddenly she understood why. It explained everything. Her frustrations, her doubts, her back and forth.

"It's not..." she started, her hands wringing in anxiety.

"What?"

"It's not only how I look," she managed to say before she took a deep breath, "Rio, that side of normality is part of who I am! You asked me to figure out what I want, so I'll tell you what I want—"

"What you really, really want?" he immediately interrupted, his face trying to remain serious although she could tell he was restraining his mocking smile.

She rolled her eyes at the skies, "The Spice Girls? Seriously? Annie really has a bad influence on you!" she exclaimed.

She'd thought he'd be shocked, maybe a little disgusted from the comparison but she didn't expect his nod, "I guess we may have more in common than we initially thought," he shrugged.

"Like what?"

"Like endurin' the bullshit that comes outta your pretty mouth! So you were sayin'?" he asked, teasing.

And maybe he was just trying to lighten the mood and cheer her up after he'd announced his departure, but God, this wasn't the fucking moment for jokes! Not when she'd finally had an epiphany about how she wanted to make everything work.

"I'm being serious!" she protested.

He shrugged, "Okay."

She let the silence fill in the room for a while before she eventually took a deep breath.

"You said that I can't have it all, but I don't want to have to choose. I don't want to live in your shadow, and become some sort of mini copy of you who'll always come second. I want to feel legit. I feel like myself when I wash cash or craft last-minute passports, I do. And I'm good at it. But so am I at baking, and attending dance recitals. And I don't want to give up on any of it," she whispered, her eyes watery, "I'm sorry but I can't follow your path, Rio."

He stared at her for a while with incomprehension before understanding saddened his gaze.

"Oh," he softly let out, "So... you endin' us? Just like that? Is that because of California?"

There wasn't even room left for anger in the ocean of his sadness and it broke her heart.

"No... God, Rio, no! I just... I want to create _my own_ path. And this normal facade as you call it, it is part of who I am. And I can't pretend anymore that it's not just because I'm trying to fit into another mold that I don't belong to. Can't you see it? I spent twenty years pretending to be someone I wasn't, and yet, somehow, I'm... doing it again. To please you. To have you. But it's not... healthy, it's not good, and it's not what I want. I lulled myself into thinking that it was but... it's not _who_ I want to be."

She paused, out of breath. Letting it all out had been an effort and she anxiously looked at him but he stubbornly looked away, avoiding her gaze and biting his lips in agitation.

_I thought you wanted to be me_

_You havin' fun bein' me?_

"I'm sorry," she breathed, tears already spilling out of her eyes.

"What makes you think I can't be part of this path of yours?" he eventually asked, his voice so dull that she barely heard him.

"I... It's not... I mean you've made it pretty clear that you want me all-in. On _your_ lane. When Jane lost her dubby and I told you that I was a mother you yelled at me, you said I was a drug dealer. But I don't want to have to choose, I want to be both."

Still avoiding her gaze, he deeply inhaled, "Elizabeth... What did _I_ do right after I told you that?"

"You went back there for it," she remembered.

He let out a throaty approving noise, finally meeting her eyes before he asked, "When did you figure this out?"

"I don't know. A few weeks ago I told Ruby that I was happy, and I meant it. And then we've based, I mean _I'_ve based our whole plan on the fact that I deceitfully look like a normal person and... it hurts. And then I've just realized that it's because this is another lie I've been telling myself."

He softly hummed, averting his gaze again.

"Please, say something," she hissed.

He bit his lips, his jaw ticking, and a Rio from other times would have just left her there, built emotional walls around him, turned to cold and distant, but she could tell that he was fighting himself not to.

"When all that feds shit is over..." he started, "I'd like you to meet my kid. Cuz I want you to see that I can be normal too," he half-smirked.

"Really?" she asked in shock.

She'd been so much expecting him to break up with her that his sudden acknowledgement of her needs felt odd.

He nodded, "Really. Whatever the fuck you want, ma, we doin' it your way," he added, his gaze warming up.

She shook her head, still in huge disbelief that this was really happening, "What happened to the inflexible lonely king who sees the whole world black-and-white?" she asked with a bit of teasing.

He shrugged, "He didn't know you existed... Wait, that how you see me?" he squinted.

"Do you really want me to answer that?" she giggled, feeling slightly better.

He chuckled and they stared at each other for a while. His gaze was warm, supportive almost, and all his sadness from earlier had vanished.

"I'll miss you when you're gone," she whispered.

"I got you a lil somethin'," he suddenly said, searching his pocket.

He handed her a small cubic box which was obviously designed to shelter a very specific kind of jewelry and she immediately frowned.

"This is a joke, right? You're not actually..." she stammered.

"What? Oh no, ain't what it looks like. It's just a gift. Open it, though."

It _was_ a ring, though. A very simple one, made of plain, silvery polished metal.

"I don't understand," she whispered.

"I had it forged out of two bullets," he explained, "One that almost killed you," — he softly ran his thumb over her scar through the fabric of her top — "And the other one..."

"That I shot into you," she completed.

He showed her a similar one at his right hand, "Got us two twin rings outta the whole crucible. You like it?"

"It's..." she started, searching for the right thing to say. The gift was raw, and twisted, and full of history, and somehow beautiful yet in an odd way, and basically... "Us," she breathed.

His lips were on hers before she even realized he'd been stepping closer, and for a while she just crossed her wrists at the back of his neck, reveling in the kiss until he pulled away. She put the ring on, surprised to see that it fitted her ring finger.

"How did you know my size?" she asked.

"You didn't even notice your weddin' ring was gone, huh?" he smiled.

And the answer was no. She hadn't. She couldn't care less about the whereabouts of her old wedding ring.

"Why are you giving me this? Why now?" she suddenly asked after a silence.

He sucked in his bottom lip with a hint of worry in his eyes, "Cuz whether things go wrong tomorrow or they go right, I don't get to see you anymore for a long time. I want you to remember me."

"How could I even forget you?"

He shrugged, a timid smile at the corner of his lips, "I dunno, maybe you'll meet someone with bigger tattoos than mine and you'll just... forget 'bout me."

She rolled her eyes, "It's a prison for _women_, idiot! And I don't care about the size of your tattoos, they are perfect for me."

"You say that now but—"

"Are you seriously having _that kind_ of insecurities?" she cut him, her eyes widened in astonishment.

He grinned, "Nah, I was just messin' with you! Wanted to see a smile on that pretty face of yours."

She tilted her head with her most seductive smirk, "Okay, but just to be sure, let me show you right now how much I'll miss _your_ tattoos!"

She grabbed the sides of his shirt to pull him closer and reach for his mouth with a moan, and he let her drag him to her bed, her tongue dancing in his mouth while she was already frantically undressing him.

She lost count of the number of times they had sex that night, although making love would have been a better way to describe it. Maybe she should have gotten some rest instead, prepared herself for the last battle. But the stakes were too high for them not to spend every minute they had left saying goodbye, committing the other one's body to memory, until their muscles would ache and their eyelids would fall shut from exhaustion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be a short epilogue coming right after this huge biggie baby, but we're basically reaching real close to the end here. 
> 
> So. Thoughts? 🤔


	10. California Dreamin'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I'd be safe and warm if I was in L.A _  
_California dreamin' on such a winter's day _  
(Song from **The Mamas and The Papas**)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe I didn't explain this clearly enough in the previous chapter, but Rio is only _temporary_ leaving Detroit so Beth and him don't accidentally blow up their taking Turned down plan. They have raised a lot of attention with the social media campaign, which means that there still are a lot of eyes on them, so it's not the moment to be caught doing criminal stuff together. They both have to keep a low profile until the dust settles, but Rio is not _leaving_ Beth!! Of course not!! 😱😱
> 
> BTW, I know I said that this would be a _short_ epilogue, but I think that we all know by now that we shouldn't mark my words when it comes to estimating chapter's length! 😂😂😂😂

When she woke up on the next morning, she took some time to just breathe before she managed to get up. Rio had left before dawn to avoid being seen at her house and she was alone. She carefully prepared herself, taking extra care with her clothing and make up.

_My name is Elizabeth Irene Boland, and this is how I murdered Leslie Petersen_

It was funny how life worked in such mysterious ways sometimes! A long time ago she'd prepared herself with the same meticulousness to confess a murder she didn't commit. And now she was about to claim innocence over a death she did cause.

The hearing went well, at first. Gretchen was attending too, which slightly reassured Beth, although there wasn't much she could do if she happened to fall in one of the traps waiting for her along the way. She did a good job at maintaining her housewife attitude and imposing her own version of events, though. Obviously Rio, who had been remarkably absent from the media polemic, was at the center of everyone's preoccupation.

_ They're gonna want to know what someone like me is doing with someone like you_

She chose to stuck to her very initial version. Remaining consistent was probably the best way to not be faulted.

"My only mistake was having an affair with a stranger that I had no idea of what he was involved with," she quietly explained.

And for a while she thought that it would do the trick. Her answers seemed to be satisfying, perpetuating the legit myth she was trying to impersonate. Until a tape was projected. A tape that she'd forgotten Turner had in his possession. She'd actually never seen it, she'd just known it existed. And she... definitely hadn't planned that. With a growing lump in her throat she watched herself doing the most awful thing she'd ever done in her life, and she forgot about all that had happened ever since, she forgot that Rio was alive, that he had forgiven her, that he loved her. She just watched him bleed with tears rolling down her cheeks, until the video stopped and she realized that this had just blown up her entire defense. The baking single mom was a little less appealing with a gun in her hand, coldly shooting a gang leader. Good thing that she was a born liar, cause in that instant she was jumping without any safety net. With an embarrassed throat clearing, she wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

"I'm sorry, I had never seen these, I didn't even know there was a _recording_ of this, and it's... still rather traumatic, I guess," she explained in a low voice.

"Can you confirm that you recognize the events recorded on this tape?" the woman in charge of the interrogation asked in a monotone.

"I can," she briefly nodded before she told them the whole story.

Well... Not exactly the _same_ story that the one she'd lived, though. It also started with a kidnapping, but the ending was quite different. An ending it took her all she had to come up with.

"It was a setup," she argued, "Why would Agent Turner be in possession of that tape while it was obviously recorded in Rio's apartment? This is another proof that they worked together as accomplices. For what I know, this blood might not even be real," she added with a dismissive gesture of her hand, knowing that she would cry later over the way she'd just minimized Rio's suffering.

But not now. Her only chance at getting away with this was to appear as the scared victim. And if she could raise some doubts about Turner's integrity once more in the process, question the validity of that last irredeemable proof, well, good for her. Rio would be MIA for the next four to six months anyway, so he wouldn't get in trouble for this. Gretchen tried to help, but Beth could tell that she hadn't expected to see that tape either, that she'd been shaken too. She'd never really thought about the bonds which could exist between Gretchen and Rio. They'd probably known each other for a long time, maybe they were even friends. Seeing him like this probably wasn't a happy reminder in any case.

Beth had serious doubts about her performance, when the hearing was finally over. Gretchen would let her know the judge's decision when it would be rendered, but in the meantime she was just supposed to go home and wait. Gretchen did her best to comfort and encourage her, but Beth was still jumpy. She wasn't over that tape yet, and the hideous way with which she'd distorted what had happened back then made it so much worse. She couldn't believe that she had somehow officially accused Rio of being Turner's accomplice, of setting up his own shooting to incriminate her. And it wasn't that she believed he would be mad at her for that, she knew that he wouldn't care and that Gretchen would defend his interests, as always. But it made her sick, it felt like killing him a second time. The day she spent at her house was the most excruciating wait of her life. She kind of lost a bit of contact with reality, trying to prepare herself for bad news so hard that at some point she almost convinced herself that they would maintain the murder charges.

Hence she didn't get it at first when Gretchen called her in the late morning of the next day to announce her that the charges against her were officially dropped. It was unreal. She spent an hour blankly staring at her phone after she'd hung up, incapable of believing it. And then she spread the news. Ruby was the first to show-up at her place as soon as she got her text, her way to apologize for her silence when Beth had been arrested. Rio made a discreet entrance through the backyard door too. She'd thought that he'd already left for California, but he had apparently delayed his departure to congratulate her.

The three of them were silently sitting in her living room with the TV on, endlessly looping on the news, when the front door loudly slammed maybe a couple of hours later.

"Sorry, I'm late!" Annie's voice trumpeted from the entrance. She joined the living room, greeting everyone with a nod, her eyes on Beth with a triumphant smile, "By the way, Netflix has called, they want to make a documentary out of your life!"

"Really?" Beth incredulously asked.

Annie giggled, "No, they didn't. But can I be your PR if they do? Please?"

"Where have you been?" Ruby asked.

"Oh, right. Well, since Beth is no longer accused of anything, I went to the police station to get my bail back," she grinned, before she dropped a black suitcase on Rio's lap, "Although it's not my money, unfortunately. Congrats Gangfriend, you made it to the jackpot! Here's your paycheck."

Okay, now his delayed departure made much more sense, Beth thought. She had totally forgotten about the astronomical bail he had paid to set her free. Rio opened the suitcase, revealing piles of cash.

"You take half of it. It's yours too," he softly told Annie.

She furrowed her eyebrows, "Really? I mean, I didn't actually _pay_ any cent on it."

"Yeah, me neither, remember? Non-existent people and stuff?" he smirked.

"Okay, fine!" she replied with a dramatic roll of her eyes, pretending to be annoyed with Rio's generosity.

He handed her half of the cash, which she immediately shared with Ruby despite the latter's protest. Rio divided his own share in two parts with a side glance at Beth and she sighed.

"That's ridiculous. We could have shared this in four from the start!" she rolled her eyes.

"Just take it, ma. It's for when I'll be gone," he whispered, and she winced at the reminder.

She didn't get to mope about it for a long time, though, as Ruby suddenly raised the volume of the TV. Speechless, she watched the latest news edition. As a consequence of the dismissal of the charges against her, the state of Michigan was officially accusing Turner of having murdered Harry. The images of him handcuffed right after his arrest felt like a dream. The journalist added that Turner's disgrace was casting doubts over all his current cases, which meant that no matter how far he'd gone at investigating, the feds would have to start over if they wanted to build a case about Rio. Or her, but she was probably out of danger for a while. She suddenly heard ringing in her head.

"So it's over?" Beth asked to no-one in particular, her mind clouded.

After all that had happened, the fear, the last-minute catastrophes, she'd eventually integrated Turner as a permanent threatening feature of her environment. And seeing the cause of her troubles suddenly vanishing, it... well she hardly believed it. It could only be a prank, right?

"He's over," Rio rectified, "But there will be other Turners. You gotta expect them in that lane, honey. Think you can handle it?"

She blinked several times, really realizing for the first time that she was truly out of danger, at least for the moment. God, she'd forgotten how it felt like. Feeling safe, for real. She nodded with a perky smile.

"My life's been pretty boring over the past decades. I think I could use the thrill," she said. Relief and exhaustion brutally fell on her, and she shook her head, "But for now I think I'm going to take a nap," she said hesitantly, slightly shaking when she got up on her feet, "Don't wake me up for the next," — she briefly glanced at her watch — "Six months?"

_And wake me up when you get back_, she thought, still trying to fathom the idea that Rio would be gone for a while.

"Can I come with you?" 

She turned around to face him as he'd jumped out of the couch to slowly walk towards her until he was only one arm length away. She softly smiled and took his hand into hers.

"I wish you could," she started, eyes locked with his, before she added in a trembling voice, "Because this is what we do. This is what we are, right?"

Rio cocked one eyebrow, expecting.

Her heart was racing under the most intense gaze he'd ever laid on her, and she timidly let out, "Napping partners."

There was a heavy silence. Beth felt the world spinning around her, oblivious of Annie and Ruby's presence in the room, losing herself in Rio's eyes, waiting for his answer. He let her words sink in for what felt like an eternity before a smile slowly made its way across his lips, until it illuminated his whole face.

"Nappin' partners. Yeah, I like that," he whispered.

She smiled back at him, something soft and warm pouring over her heart as she finally got his point. Some say the destination doesn't matter, the journey it's what's important. It didn't matter what they were as long as they were something. He'd asked for a label. He'd never specified that he cared about what was written on it, and it had taken the stupidest label ever for her to realize it. They stared at each other with something close to adoration in their eyes until Annie loudly cleared her throat.

"Oh come on, get a room! I swear I could get pregnant just from the sparks of your eyefucking!"

Rio left for real on the following morning. Although she knew that it was just temporary, Beth couldn't hold her tears back.

"I'm gonna miss you," she whined.

His thumb softly wiped the tears on her cheeks, his eyes filled with endless tenderness, "I know. Me too, sweetheart."

She clung to his neck, wishing she could freeze the moment forever, and he held her tight, burying his nose in her hair and silently articulating an _I love you_ that she didn't hear.

He intensely looked at her when they parted, "You gonna have to rule the whole kingdom in my absence. Think you can handle it?"

"Always. Besides, it's on partial shut-down so... no big deal," she nodded.

He smiled, patting her shoulder, "That my part-time Boss Bitch!"

She tiptoed to reach his mouth, stealing one last kiss before he stepped back. He was keeping a manly strong composure, but she could tell that he was trying hard not to kiss her again and never leave as a result.

"Alright," he lowered his eyes, "Time to go. Take care, Elizabeth."

She watched him leave, knowing that he wouldn't turn his head back. But it wasn't because he'd built up impassable walls around himself. This time she knew that he wouldn't be able to leave if he looked at her again.

"I love you so much," she muttered under her breath to the tiny silhouette of his car at the end of the street, her thumb rubbing over her ring.

* * *

**Four Months Later**

* * *

"Daddy! Daddy! There she is!"

A few people turned their head to the high-pitched voice of the kid and Rio gave them a polite yet terrifying dismissive smile. He'd been unsuccessfully peering through the LAX crowd for several minutes, but he finally caught sight of her when his eyes followed the direction of Marcus's outstretched arm. She was casting glances all around her, probably as lost as he was, but she eventually rolled her eyes in their direction, and something twitched in his heart when their eyes met.

He couldn't remove that fucking stupid smile from his face from the moment they saw each other. Every fucking time. She'd managed to visit him twice over the past four months, and it had been the same cheesy running-through-the-airport-in-slow-motion-vibe shit. And he hated that he didn't hate it. But this time was different. This time he had Marcus by his side, and well... it was kinda big.

She walked towards them with a weird jumpiness suggesting that she was restraining herself for running and tried to keep her adult dignity, but then she stood there, kinda embarrassed. Fuck. Kissing her _Hi_ had never been a problem the other times, but with the lil man by his side, it was different. She instantly dissipated the awkwardness by crouching in front of his son.

"Hi!" she greeted with a smile.

Alright. They weren't complete strangers to each other. She'd seen him at the park before, and the kid clearly remembered his dad's _'blonde friend you're arguing with all the time'_. But they'd never actually talked to each other. Marcus gave her a toothless grin.

"Hi, Elizabeth!"

Rio could swear that she'd internally rolled her eyes at this, "You can call me Beth, you know?"

"My dad calls you Elizabeth," the kid stubbornly replied, which made Rio proud as fuck of his lil genius.

"God, you really sound like your father," she giggled.

She stood back to her normal height and she stared at him.

"Hey," she softly said.

He saw the interrogation in her eyes, the beginning of a hand gesture — was she seriously gonna _shake_ his fucking hand? — and he suddenly got sick of it. The kid saw people kissing on TV all the time, and although he'd better not have tried _that_ with his girlfriend, he wouldn't end up traumatized. He wrapped an arm around Elizabeth's waist, pulling her closer and briefly capturing her bottom lip between his. The kiss was quick and shallow, he didn't want to put on a show in front of the kid either, but it was soft, welcoming.

She was blushing and timidly smiling at him with relief when they parted, and his hand didn't leave her waist for the whole time they walked back to the car. Usually he'd use the ride to ask her about the business, check for the last developments, and even enquire about her ladyfriends' whereabouts if he was in a good mood. After all, he needed to keep himself up-to-date, he wouldn't survive the embarrassment of coming back to Detroit without any fresh news, that was the kind of shit that could ruin an entrance. And then they'd generally jump at each other as soon as they'd get to his apartment, making up for weeks of longing for each other. But neither of it was allowed with Marcus around, so.

Probably anticipating the awkwardness of silently sitting on the passenger's seat with Marcus watching them from behind, she insisted for sitting on the backseat with the kid. Good thing that she had her ways with children, though. Rio was rather crappy at small talk, he didn't know what to say, but Elizabeth got Marcus started on his favorite pastries, promising him new treats of her own, talking to him about her kids and how they would surely all get along, and by the time they arrived, Marcus was begging his father for organizing playdates with Elizabeth's brood. Man, she was good at this!

It was a sunny day, definitely California's major perk by the way, which they spent outside, going for ice-creams with Marcus before letting the kid consume all his sugar-energy at the park. Rio could hardly get his hand off her, though, stealing kisses from her whenever Marcus wasn't watching. He couldn't wait to finally spend some alone time with her. Just to be clear, he _loved_ to finally see Elizabeth and Marcus getting along, that wasn't the fucking point. It actually made him feel like the most complete he'd ever been. But he just missed her skin, and having her right by his side, not being able to touch her as much as he wanted to, that was just freaking torture.

It wasn't before the evening that he actually got to talk to her. Back to the apartment, they'd had pizza for dinner, and then Marcus had stuffed himself with the chocolate cake she'd brought from home. Rio's eyes had almost popped out of his head when she'd proudly pulled it out from her cabin luggage. Who the fuck did that? Not that he could actually complain, though, that cake was dope. Which reminded him of the idea he'd had lately. He couldn't wait to ask for her opinion.

Marcus was telling all about his school pals to Elizabeth when Rio had to put an end to it. Just because it was holiday time didn't mean that the kid got to go to bed in the middle of the night.

"Alright, lil man, bedtime's comin' yeah?"

Marcus vigorously protested.

"Oh come on, it's the holiday, he can have ten more minutes, right?" Elizabeth pleaded.

He raised one eyebrow. If she was planning on playing this good cop bad cop stuff with _his_ kid, he'd need a serious talk with her. Although it did seem to be an appropriate technique to sneak in Marcus's good graces. He surrendered for this time.

"Okay. Gonna put some beddin' over the couch in the meantime then," he said.

He didn't want to confuse the kid by making it obvious that Elizabeth would sleep in his bed. Although he didn't expect his son's exasperated snort.

"Daddy, you don't have to pretend, you know? I know you guys are dating."

Sometimes, Rio was really proud of how smart and mature his son was. Sometimes, he... was not.

He squinted, "Datin'? Who even taught you that word?"

Marcus gave him an offended look, rolling his eyes in what was probably an attempt at looking much older than he actually was.

"I'm almost nine!"

Elizabeth witnessed the whole scene with bulging eyes, and when Marcus joined his bedroom a few minutes later after having said goodnight, she immediately turned to him.

"Who is he? My children don't speak like that!"

Rio shook his head, half-proud and half-annoyed.

"Yeah, I know, the kid's fuckin' precocious. Got two new front teeth and now he thinks he's a grown-up. He's even got a girlfriend, you believe that?"

"Yeah, he told me about her. Amy, right?"

Rio hummed and there was a silence.

"Does he know that I'm the one who..." she suddenly asked after a silence.

"Nah. I said precocious, I didn't say he was an adult. Why, your kids know about that? You tell 'em 'bout the guy you murdered too?" he snapped, maybe a little harsher than he'd intended.

But she'd just... That was a sensitive spot. Knowing that someday Marcus would be old enough to understand that his father was a criminal. That the woman who — hopefully by then — shared his life had almost killed him. Talk about providing fucking parental role models!

"I'm sorry I interfered with your parenting earlier," she suddenly said, "It's just that he's already too much like his father for me to refuse him anything," she smiled.

He took one step closer, "Yeah? You like him?"

"I love him! I mean, he's basically the sweetest kid I've ever seen. And I've got four of these!" she giggled, and suddenly he couldn't hold it anymore.

He closed the distance between them, his hand entangling in her hair, and he hissed a hoarse "Elizabeth!" before he let his lips crash on hers. She immediately wrapped herself around him, clinging to his neck and oblivious of anything else. He felt the tip of her tongue against his lips, opened his mouth to her, and she softly moaned when she met his tongue.

She mumbled something inaudible against his lips, and he slightly pulled away.

"What did you just say?" he asked.

"I said I missed you. When are you coming back? I haven't heard of the feds for weeks, you know..."

He grinned, "Actually I was thinking 'bout extendin' my stay here, check for business opportunities—"

"Christopher! I need you back in Detroit!" she protested, her hand meeting his cheek in a gentle and playful slap, although he knew that she really meant it.

"Nah, I'm just jokin'," he reassured her, "Was thinkin' comin' back next month. But I've been doin' my homework. I got a lotta opportunities here, and your organic gluten-free whatever bakin' goods would definitely sell like the hot cakes they are, here. People are nuts 'bout hype food."

She stepped back, crossing her arms over her chest, and jerking her chin, "I'm not leaving Detroit. My whole life... My whole _family_ is there!"

"I know, sweetheart, and I ain't askin' you that. Was just thinkin' that we could, you know, develop a new business branch here? I've got the contacts and whatnot, we could manage it remotely. Plus we got this as a safety net if the feds become too much of a pain in the ass. And don't tell me you wouldn't like a sunny vacation once in a while!" he smirked.

She blinked, and he could literally see the gears running behind her pretty face.

"When did you plan this?"

"Oh you think I stayed here with my arms crossed?" he teased, "I mean I did at first but then I got bored. I didn't _plan_ anythin' though, wanted your opinion first. So whatchu think?"

"I think... maybe this could actually work. I mean, obviously I will have to check the schedules compatibility, and we'd have to take the time difference into account, not to mention that we won't be able to smuggle things across the Mexican border the way we do with Canada, but.. What?" she asked to the huge — and rather stupid — smile that had spread all over his face.

"I like it when you dirty talk to me like that," he drawled.

She blushed, like the full kind, the one that made him want to unbutton her blouse to see how far down it went. He slowly raised a hand to push a lock of hair behind her ear before his fingertips softly slid along her skin, and she let out a choked whimper when he reached her collarbone.

"Can you be extra quiet?" he whispered. She silently nodded, and he approved, "Good. Cause you my nappin' partner, right? So let's... take a good quiet _nap_," he smirked.

They never made it to the bedroom, though. By the time they came across the couch — and crashed on it — they were already half naked, muffling their moans in the other one's skin, breathing loudly and mouthing inaudible promises. And in the interlacing of their fingers, two identical rings were sparkling in the moonlight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. End of an era and everything. I hope this brought you some peace of mind before S3 premieres... 😭😭😇😇
> 
> When I started writing _Love and War_, I never thought that it would take me that far, and I really want to thank you all for sticking to this story till the end. To be honest, I really struggled at writing this sequel, I faced countless writer blocks and I'm really happy that I eventually managed to bring Beth and Rio where I wanted to despite it all. I have learned so much, and writing this has been a lot of fun, along with so many doubts, but your support really helped me going through all of it, so thank you so much!!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
> 
> It's still incredible to have had such amazing feedbacks from you guys!! I love you 😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘
> 
> [EDIT] Also, I just found out that someone posted [this](https://twitter.com/VinglyLo/status/1230555119634149376) on Twitter, and just... Whoever you are, LoVinglyObsessed, thank you so much, it's absolutely incredible, and I felt like glitter had exploded inside of me when I read your post, so THANK YOU SO MUCH again, it literally means the world to me!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️


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